96 
THE EAGLE. 
of his having neglected to bring it some bread or other food 
it was accustomed to receive from his hand. At length, after 
having lived about ten or twelve years in this way, it was killed 
by a powerful and ferocious mastiff. Nobody saw the battle, 
but it must have been long and bravely contested, for the dog, 
though victorious, was so severely wounded that it died almost 
immediately afterwards. 
The weight of a large Eagle is about twelve pounds, 
though some (as the Bird of Washington) weigh fourteen 
pounds and a half, rather more than an average-sized 
Goose. But in order to transport this weight with their 
extraordinary occasional speed of 140 miles or more per 
hour, which it has been proved these birds can accomplish, 
there is a prodigious spread of wing, from seven to upwards 
of ten feet from tip to tip, in addition to a muscular power 
almost incredible. 
An Eagle has been known to strike and kill its prey 
with a stroke of its pinions before it touched them with its 
claws. Many people have, however, doubted whether they 
have sufficient strength to carry off children and lambs; and 
if such belief rested only on one or two instances, it might 
be reasonably questioned; but so many well authenticated 
cases have been mentioned as having occurred in places 
widely distant, that we do not see how the fact can be 
denied. 
Bishop Heber, in his travels in India, passed through 
a mountainous district where sad complaints were made 
of their carrying off infant children ; and we remember some 
years ago, in the Alps, that on a high-pointed pinnacle of 
inaccessible rock, jutting out from a peak of snow near the 
summit of the Jung Frau, one of the highest of the Alpine 
range of mountains, there might be seen the tattered remains 
of the clothing of a poor child, who had been carried up by 
a Lsemmergeyer, or Bearded Vulture, from a valley below, in 
spite of the shouts of some peasants who saw the bird pounce 
upon its prize. It is called the Bearded Vulture from the 
tuft of bristles on each cheek, as represented in the figure 
at p. 27. 
