26 
POWER OF FLIGHT. 
and even young children. This strength of wing is not 
unnoticed by Shakespeare :— 
“ This was but as a fly by an eagle.” 
Antony and Cleopatra , Act ii. Sc. 2. 
And— 
“ An eagle flight, bold, and forth on, 
Leaving no track behind.” 
Timon of Athens , Act i. Sc. i. 
This last line recalls to mind the following allusion to 
the flight of the Jerfalcon:—“Then prone she dashes 
with so much velocity, that the impression of her path 
remains on the eye, in the same manner as that of the 
shooting meteor or flashing lightning, and you fancy that 
there is a torrent of falcon rushing for fathoms through 
the air.” * 
Spenser, in the fifth book of his “ Faerie Queene ” 
(iv. 42), has depicted the grandeur of an eagle on the 
wing 
“ Like to an eagle in his kingly pride 
Soring thro’ his wide empire of the aire 
To weather his brode sailes.” 
But notwithstanding his great powers of flight, we are 
reminded that the eagle is not always secure. Guns, 
traps, and other engines of destruction are directed against 
him, whenever and wheresoever opportunity occurs :— 
* Mudie, “Feathered Tribes of the British Islands,” i. p. 82. 
