ROYAL OR GOLDEN EAGLE. 
65 
The ferocious and savage nature of the Eagle, in an 
unreclaimed state, is sometimes displayed in a remarkable 
manner. A peasant attempted to rob an eyry of this 
bird situated in the lake of Killarney ; for this purpose 
he stripped and swam over to the spot in the absence of 
the old birds ; but, on his return, while yet up to the chin 
in water, the parents arrived, and missing their young, 
instantly fell on the unfortunate plunderer, and killed 
him on the spot. 
There are several well authenticated instances of their 
carrying off children to their nests. In 1737, in the par- 
ish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy, over 2 years old, 
on his way from the cottage to his parents at work in 
the fields at no great distance, fell into the pounce of 
an Eagle, who flew off with the child in their sight and 
was seen no more. Anderson, in his history of Iceland, 
says, that in that island children of 4 or 5 years of age have 
occasionally been borne away by Eagles : and Ray re- 
lates, that in one of the Orkneys a child of a year old 
was seized in the talons of this ferocious bird, and car- 
ried above 4 miles to its nest ; but the mother knowing 
the place of the eyry, followed the bird, and recovered 
her child yet unhurt. 
The Common, or Ring-tailed Eagle, is now found to be 
the young of the Golden Eagle. These progressive 
changes have been observed by Temminck on two living 
subjects which he kept for several years. 
In the adult bird the summit of the head to the nape of the neck 
is ornamented with yellowish ferruginous pointed feathers ; all the 
other parts of the body are of a dark brown, more or less inclining 
towards black according to age ; the inner side of the thighs, and 
the feathers of the legs are of a clear brown. The primaries, in the 
old bird, or F. chrysaetos , according to Brisson have the inner barbs 
of the first 3 indented or shortened j in a specimen which I obtained 
in this vicinity, the first 4 are so indented, and in the young, or 
6 * 
