THE EAGLE. 
101 
straight line to a vast height, and then ceasing to flap its 
wings, fell headlong to the ground. Struck with so un- 
accountable an occurrence, the keeper made what haste he 
could to the spot, and found the Eagle quite dead, and a 
wounded stoat struggling by its side. On examining the 
body of the Eagle, he soon discovered the cause of its fall. 
The stoat when in the air had contrived, according to its 
usual custom in attacking rabbits, hares, rats, and other small 
animals, to open an artery or vein, and kept firm hold of the 
wound it had inflicted. 
Another such case occurred to a gentleman in America ; 
he, like the gamekeeper, saw an Eagle seize its prey and 
fly off, and soon afterwards rise spirally to an immense 
height till nearly out of sight, and then fall to the earth 
like a stone. As he approached, he saw a weasel running 
away from the body, and, on further examination, found that 
the little animal had got under the Eagle’s wing, and sucked 
the blood until the bird fell from exhaustion. Another case 
is on record, of one of these birds attacking a cat, when a 
battle actually took place in the air, and lasted some minutes. 
The cat, aware, it may he supposed, of her danger, clung 
with her claws to the Eagle, and prevented him from letting 
her drop. At length, tired of struggling, and impeded by 
the clinging of the cat, he descended to the earth, where the 
fight still continued ; and in the end some lookers-on cap- 
tured both the combatants. A cat, however, if once within 
the fair grasp of an Eagle on firm ground, has but a poor 
chance. One, tempted probably by some pieces of raw meat, 
was seen to make its way through the lattice-work of a large 
hut, in which a fine Golden Eagle had been long kept. In 
an instant, the bird was observed to pounce from its perch, 
and seize poor puss so rudely and suddenly with its claw, 
that, notwithstanding the vivacious nature of the cat species, 
she was killed in a moment, without an appearance of strug- 
gling, or even quivering of her limbs. The entire claw 
seemed to have been plunged in a moment into the tenderest 
part of her body. Having secured his victim beyond the 
power of escape, he remounted his perch to pause and look 
