THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 
588 
going on below : let, however, a sign of prey be seen, and 
its conduct changes in an instant. Suddenly it closes its 
wings, and descends in an oblique direction earthwards 
with a terrific rushing sound, and wide, extended talons 
ready to strike the quarry it has already selected. From 
the shy roe to the mouse, from the Bustard to the 
Pigeon, nothing is safe from its claws: it will seize 
whatever it can overpower, and carry off. It spares 
neither the child at play, nor the savage fox, though the 
latter sometimes makes it pay dear for its rapacity, biting- 
through the robber’s jugular vein while suspended in the 
air. The fawns of red and roe deer, the young of the 
wild boar, young lambs and goats, hares, rabbits, badgers, 
and cats, all fall a prey to its bloodthirsty talons, and 
form its principal food, though a hamster, mole, rat, or 
even mouse, is not despised. Amongst birds it preys on 
Ducks, Geese, Cranes, Storks, black game, Partridges, 
and farm-yard Fowls. It is the Eagle who is guilty, 
of what is generally attributed to the Lammergeir, and 
who carried off a little girl in Switzerland, afterwards 
saved, and nick-named, in commemoration of her escape, 
“ Geiranni” (Annie of the Lammergeir). 
It is the Eagle who commits the greater portion of 
those enormities which are commonly laid at the door of 
the Lammergeir. I have been convinced of this in Spain 
by ocular demonstration. We were sitting one day at a 
solitary peasant farm among the mountains, talking over 
the larger birds of prey, and the farmer would not on any 
account allow that the Lammergeir was a dangerous 
robber. “ The bird that kills sheep, cats, goats, and 
especially Turkeys, is no other,” said he, “than the 
‘ Aguila real.’ ” It is scarcely possible to protect Turkeys, 
both old and young, from the rapacity of this bird; he 
