248 
Accipitres. BIRDS. Falconid^. 
and it appears to delight in soaring to a great height in the 
air. But even when the bird is at such an elevation as 
to appear only like a small black speck in the sky, the 
acuteness of its vision is so great, that it can readily 
discover its prey upon the ground below it, when it will 
descend with the most astonishing velocity to seize its 
victim. Its great strength enables it to prey upon crea- 
tures whose size would prevent them from being attacked, 
or at all events being carried off by any of the smaller 
Falconidse, and although it does not contemn such 
small game as partridges and grouse, it destroys lambs, 
even when several weeks old, and young fawns, which 
its great muscular power enables it even to carry off in 
its talons to its nest among the rocks. Hares and rab- 
bits also constitute a considerable portion of its food. 
The eagle is, in fact, the great tjTant of the wild regions 
which he inhabits, but as we must bear in mind that 
nothing that he can meet with there has any power of 
defending itself from his terrible swoop, we must not 
allow ourselves, as our forefathers did, to magnify him 
into a tj^je of magnanimity and courage. This view 
is induced by the magnificent aspect of the bird, and 
the abundant evidences of terrible energy furnished 
by his every movement; in true courage he is not supe- 
rior to most of the smaller hawks, and certainly inferior 
to the peregrine and many other falcons, which will 
even venture to attack and drive away this so-called 
monarch of the waste, when he approaches too near 
their nests. 
The Golden eagle, as already stated, is an inhabitant 
Fig. 99. 
of mountainous regions, in the wild fastnesses of which 
he dwells in solitary state, far from the habitations of 
man. On the highest and most inaccessible ledges of 
the rocks the eagles build their nests, or eyries, which 
consist of a vast assemblage of sticks, forming a flat 
platform of several feet in diameter. Upon this the 
female deposits two, or at the utmost three eggs, which 
are of a dirty-white colour, mottled with pale reddish 
brown The eggs are laid about the end of March or 
the beginning of April, and m the course of a month the 
young eaglets are hatched During their growth the 
parent birds are indefatigable in attending upon them 
and supplying them with food, and such an abundant 
supply of game do they bring into the nest, that we are 
told of one instance in which a native of Kerry obtained 
a comfortable subsistence for himself and his family 
throughout a summer of scarcity, by robbing the nest 
of an eagle of the food brought for the support of the 
young birds, whose wings he clipped in order to retard 
their flight, and thus prolong the attendance of the 
