566 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



of strength as to enable her to reach the nest ; but, alas ! to find her 

 child lifeless. 



Near New York, in America, a lad of seven years of age was 

 attacked in a harvest field by an Eagle, while the labourers were 

 absent for their mid-day meal. The boy having avoided the first 

 shock, the Eagle persevered in its onslaught ; but he waited for it 

 bravely, and gave the bird a vigorous blow under the left wing with 

 a sickle, which killed it. When the stomach of this Eagle was opened 

 it was found entirely devoid of food. The bird was, therefore, in a 

 famished state, and consequently enfeebled. Its persistent boldness 

 is thus explained, and also the ease with which it was mastered. 



We must, however, confess that cases of children being carried 

 away by Eagles are rare, for they generally avoid the vicinity of man, 

 feeling unable to cope with them successfully. The chief objects of 

 their attacks are newly-born lambs, which they frequently take in 

 spite of the shouts of the shepherd and the proximity of his dogs. 

 Sometimes they devote their attention to young calves ; they do not, 

 however, attempt to transport them to their aerie, but feed on them 

 where slaughtered. 



A considerable amount of ingenuity has been displayed by some 

 men in turning to account the habit which Eagles have of storing up 

 a quantity of provisions in their nests for the sustenance of their 

 young. A peasant in Ireland kept himself and the whole of his 

 family for an entire season by robbing the eaglets in a neighbouring 

 aerie of the stores of food which were brought to them by the parent 

 birds. In order to prolong this singular means of livelihood, report 

 says, he endeavoured to delay the moment when the young ones 

 would be driven forth, adopting the artifice of cutting their wings to 

 render it impossible for them to fly. 



Eagles are very suspicious, and it is consequently difficult to get 

 within gunshot of them. The mountaineers of the Pyrenees suffer 

 much from the ravages they make among their flocks, and for this 

 reason brave many dangers to prevent their increase. 



" This pursuit," says M. Gerard, " is carried on by two men ; one 

 of the hunters is armed with a double-barrelled carbine, the other 

 with an iron pike several feet long. At the first indication of day- 

 break the hunters reach the mountain-peak where the Eagle has his 

 aerie, just at the time that the old birds are away seeking food. The 

 first stands on the summit of the rock, and, carbine in hand, waits 

 the arrival of the Eagle. The other makes his way down to the nest, 

 climbing from cleft to cleft by means of cords. With a bold hand 

 the eaglets are grasped, still too young to oppose resistance. The 



