BIRDS AND POETRY. 
437 
hear the cry in all its harshness : the further and further 
they fly the softer it becomes, until in the distance it 
sounds even pleasant. Such is the power of that most 
poetical of all movements—flight! 
This power is felt by all men, be they Nature's 
untutored children even, in quite as high a degree as 
with ourselves. All birds which are remarkable for their 
powers of flight awaken a feeling of poetry, and the 
longing to possess the wondrous gift, or become the 
subject of a legend. 
The Bateleur Eagle of Africa is called the “ Ape of 
Heaven" by the Abyssinians, because its flight can be 
immediately distinguished from that of any other bird in 
the country: at one moment darting off like a young 
unbridled colt, it now hangs suspended in the blue vault 
of heaven, without the quivering of a pinion, without 
motion, then rising rapidly in the air, till lost to sight, it 
soon returns with terrific velocity to the earth, amid a 
complicated acrobatic performance, tumbling hither and 
thither like a pigeon. Its motion can scarcely be called 
flight, being as it is a compound of swimming, dancing, 
playing, and posturing in the air. Among the homely 
inhabitants of the forest villages of Central Africa, among 
the brown hordes and nomad tribes of the “ Land of 
Ham," this bird for many a long day has had a place in 
their sayings and songs; for such a singular creature 
could not otherwise than become a subject of rhymed 
tradition amongst a people whose very greeting is poetic, 
whose forms of speech are poetical, and whose parting 
good-bye is rarely otherwise uttered than in rhyme. The 
flight of the Bateleur Eagle attracted common attention 
to the bird, and legend was not long in finding out some¬ 
thing peculiar in its manner of life. “ The All-merciful 
