OUR HOME BIRDS. 
225 
Some nations blacken it ; some cut it down the 
middle and spread it abroad ; some flatten it ; while 
others combine the operations, and further insult 
the royal bird by placing a round crown on its long 
head, hang a chain round its neck, and weary its 
claws with a sceptre. America certainly takes the 
eagle as it is, and keeps it as the national emblem 
uncrowned, unsceptred, unsplit, unblacked, and un- 
flattened.’ ” 
“ Good for America !” enthusiastically cried Mal- 
colm, who evidently felt that he had a personal share 
in the king of birds. 
“ The eagle,” continued Miss Harson, “ has always 
been an object of reverence among savage nations, 
and especially among the North American Indians, 
whose warriors wear eagles’ plumes on their heads, 
each plume representing a slain enemy. The Arau- 
canian Indians actually worship this bird, consid- 
ering it as a kind of demigod presiding over the 
welfare of their nation. They think it a happy 
omen to meet an eagle if it is seen on the right 
hand. These savages have the same ideas of the 
eagle as were held by the ancient Romans, who 
called it the ‘ bird of Jove,’ looking upon it as his 
special messenger, and representing it as grasping 
the thunderbolt in its claws, in token of its ready 
swiftness and obedience. 
P 
