386 
EAGLE. 
to bear the weight of a large quantity of provisions. 
It is not covered above, but is sheltered by the pro- 
jection of the upper part of the rock : in the middle 
of this structure the female deposits her eggs, which 
seldom exceed two or three, and covers them, it is 
said, for thirty days; but some of these ate commonly 
addle, and it is seldom that three young eagles are 
found in a single nest. It is even pretended, that after 
they have acquired some strength the mother de- 
strovs the weakest or the most voracious of her in- 
•/ 
fant brood. Excessive scarcity of provisions alone 
can occasion this Unnatural treatment. The parents, 
not possessing a sufficiency for their own support, 
endeavour to reduce the members of the family ; 
and when the young are able to fly, and in somU 
degree to provide for themselves, they expel them 
from their natal abode, and never suffer them to 
return. 
The strength of the eagle must be very great to 
enable him to rise into the air with the heavy prey 
which he occasionally carries to his young ones. 
The curious account of the nest of an eagle, de- 
scribed by Willughby, must not be omitted. “In 
the year of our Lord 1668, in the woodlands near 
the river Derwent, in the peak of Derbyshire, was 
found an eagle’s nest, made of great sticks, resting 
one end on the edge of a rock, the other on two 
birch trees, upon which was a layer of rushes, and 
over them a layer of heath, and upon the heath 
rushes again ; upon which lay one young one and 
an addle egg, and by them a lamb, a hare, and 
