TEE EAGLE AND THE CANARY. 133 
eagle are both more or less aerial in their mode of 
life, and possessed of boundless energy, the divorce 
from nature is immeasurably greater in one case 
than in the other. The small bird, in relation to 
its free natural life, is less confined in its cage than 
the large one. Its smallness, perching structure, 
and restless habits, fit it for continual activity, and 
its flitting, active life within the bars bears some 
resemblance, except in the great matter of flight, to 
its life in a state of nature. Again, its lively, 
curious, and extremely impressible character, is in 
many ways an advantage in captivity ; every new 
sound and sight, and every motion, however slight, 
in any object or body near it, affording it, so to 
speak, something to think about. It has the 
further advantage of a varied and highly musical 
language ; the frequent exercise of the faculty of 
singing, in birds with largely developed vocal 
organs, no doubt reacts on the system, and con- 
tributes not a little to keep the prisoner healthy 
and cheerful. 
On the other hand, the eagle, on account of its 
structure and large size, is a prisoner indeed, and 
must languish with all its splendid faculties and 
importunate impulses unexercised. You may gorge 
it with gobbets of flesh until its stomach cries, 
" Enough ; " but what of all the other organs fed by 
the stomach, and their correlated faculties ? Every 
