EAGLE. 



151 



most regained the power of its wings, but the other was taken alive by 

 a Highlander, who witnessed the scene, and who waited till the wind 

 had wafted him near the shore. This curious account we received 

 from an officer who bought the Eagle. 



Although this is an extremely bold bird, it will not venture to con- 

 tend with a dog or a fox in its natural wild state. An Eagle and a fox 

 were observed to be regaling themselves on the carcase of a goat, that 

 had fallen down a precipice in the Highlands of Scotland. The latter 

 frequently obliged the other to desist, and retreat a little, but it was 

 not sufficiently alarmed to prevent returning ; and it occasionally threw 

 itself into bold and picturesque attitudes of defence, spreading the wings 

 and tail, and erecting every feather. 



Two living Eagles were sent to us from Ireland, and were, on their 

 arrival at Bristol, detained by an officer of excise, upon a plea that there 

 was a duty upon all singing-birds. Had this happened on the other 

 side of the water it might have been termed an Irish story. The un- 

 fortunate birds would, however, have been starved at the custom-house, 

 if application had not been made to the head of that department in the 

 port of Bristol, offering to pay any demand for their release, if legally 

 detained for their vocal abilities. By this officer it was most wisely 

 determined, after some consideration, that Eagles could scarcely be con- 

 sidered as singing birds. 



This is by far the most plentiful of the aquiline race, in the British 

 dominions ; not a year passes but many are shot in England. A speci- 

 men killed on the Mendip hills, in Somersetshire, two years since, 

 (1802,) was very small, probably a male. Its talons were blunt, as if 

 worn in confinement. 



*In their native districts these noble birds are generally seen near the 

 sea-shore, or upon the rocky precipices on the margin of the inland 

 lakes, from whence they pounce upon the fish while swimming near 

 the surface of the water. Aquatic birds also become their frequent prey. 

 They generally choose the most inaccessible cliffs for building their 

 nests, laying one and sometimes two eggs, entirely white and nearly 

 the size of that of a goose ; one of these, in Selby's possession, was laid 

 by a bird after it had been in confinement twenty years. 



It is probable that it was the near resemblance of the young of the 

 White Headed Eagle (Haliaetus leucocephalus, Savigny,) and our 

 Eagle, which led Wilson to adopt the opinion that they are the same, 

 " in a different stage of colour," fortified by observing the changes 

 in the plumage of several birds in confinement. One kept at Phila- 



