Timorous, at first they fluttered round the verge,
Balanced and furled their hesitating wings,
Then put them forth again with steadier aim;
Now, gaining courage as they felt the wind
Dilate their feathers, fill their airy frames
With buoyancy that bore them from their feet,
They yielded all their burthen to the breeze,
And sailed and soared where'er their guardians led.
Ascending, hovering, wheeling, or alighting,
They searched the deep in quest of nobler game
Than yet their inexperience had encountered;
With these they battled in that element,

Their wings or fins were equally at home,

Till conquerors in many a desperate strife,

They dragged their spoils to land, and gorged at leisure.

Another picture, from the same graphic pen, may well be added:
Day by day,

New lessons, exercises, and amusements
Employed the old to teach, the young to learn.
Now floating on the blue lagoon behold them,
The sire and dam in swan-like beauty steering,
Their cygnets following through the foaming wake,
Picking the leaves of plants, pursuing insects,
Or catching at the bubbles as they brake;
Till on some minor fry, in reedy shallows,
With flapping pinions and unsparing beaks,

The well taught scholars plied their double art,

To fish in troubled waters, and secure

The petty captives in their maiden pouches;

Then hurry with their banquet to the shore,

With feet, wings, breast, half swimming and half-flying;
And when their pens grew strong to fight the storm,

And buffet with the breakers on the reef

The parents put them to severer proofs.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE IMPERIAL EAGLE.

Monarch of Mountain and Forest-Majestic Flights-Gazing at the Sun-Rapacious Tyrants-Elevated Nest-Symbol of Roman Empire-Tribute of Mrs. He. mans to Wounded Eagle-Amazing Gift of Sight-Seizure of Marie Delex-A Monster of the Air-Children Carried Away on Wings-Frightful EncountersA Daring Rescue-Forest King on His Crag-Swift Descent-Shrewd Method of Taking Prey-The Bald Eagle-Dimensions of Sea-Eagle-Preying on Quadrupeds-Mated Once for Life-Osprey or Fish Eagle-Peculiar Foot and ToesPlunging Down from Vast Heights-Claws of Astonishing Strength-Harpy Eagle-Tenant of Mexico and South America-Hard Fighter-Destroyer of Animal Life-Sure Aim and Fatal Blow-Feathers Used for Decorations→ Striking Colors of Plumage.

HE eagle, the monarch of the mountain forests, over which he has reigned since the creation, is still found exercising his dominion in the ancient and remote woods of Europe, Asia, and America, but more particularly in the northern parts. Nuttall thus describes it: Near their rocky nests they are seen usually in pairs, at times majestically soaring to a vast height, and gazing on the sun, toward which they ascend until they disappear from view. From this sublime elevation they often select their devoted prey-sometimes a kid or a lamb from the sporting flock, or the timid rabbit or hare crouched in the furrow, or sheltered in some bush. The largest birds are also frequently their victims, and in extreme want they will not refuse to join with the alarmed vulture in his cadaverous repast. After this gorging meal the eagle can, if necessary, fast for several days.

The precarious nature of his subsistence, and the violence by which it is constantly obtained, seem to produce a moral effect on the disposition of this rapacious bird; though in pairs, they are never seen associated with their young; their offspring are driven forth to lead the same unsocial, wandering life as their unfeeling progenitors. This harsh and tyrannical disposition is strongly displayed even when they lead a life of restraint and confinement. The weaker bird is never willingly suffered to eat a morsel, and though he may cower and quail under the blow with the most abject submission, the same savage deportment continues toward him as long as he exists. Those observed in steady confinement frequently uttered hoarse cries, sometimes almost barkings, accompanied

by vaporous breathings, strongly expressive of their ardent, unconquerable, and savage appetites. Their fire-darting eyes, lowering brows, flat foreheads, restless disposition, and terrific plaints, together with their powerful natural weapons, seem to assimilate them to the tiger rather than the timorous bird. Yet it would appear that they may be rendered docile, as the Tartars, according to Marco Polo, were said to tame this species to the chase of hares, foxes, wolves, antelopes, and other kinds of large game, in which they displayed all the docility of the falcon.

The longevity of the eagle is as remarkable as its strength; it is believed to subsist for a century, and is about three years in gaining its complete growth and fixed plumage. This bird was held in high estimation by the ancients on account of its extraordinary magnitude, courage, and sanguinary habits. The Romans chose it as an emblem for their imperial standard, and from its aspiring flight and majestic soaring it was fabled to hold communion with heaven, and to be the favorite messenger of Jove. The Tartars have a particular esteem for the feathers of the tail, with which they superstitiously think to plume invincible arrows. It is no less the venerated war-eagle of our northern and western aborigines, and the caudal feathers are extremely valued for head-dresses, and as sacred decorations for the pipe of peace.

A Nest in the Tree-Tops.

The eagle builds its nest upon the tops of trees, and prefers those which have the greater number of climbing shrubs about them. Where such are not to be found, it selects a bushy thicket, in which it forms a spacious eyrie of sticks and twining branches, laid nearly flat, and lined with a thick layer of hair inartificially disposed. The female lays two eggs, much pointed at one extremity, and dotted and spotted with crimson on a ground of brownish-red.

The eagle devours the dead and the living. Sometimes four or five unite to pursue a prey that a single one could not master. D'Azara states that he has seen them hunt down red buzzards, herons, and other large birds; and it seems they prey, not only on a variety of smaller crea- · tures, but also on young fawns and lambs. Often do they feast, too, on what others have taken. Thus, if an eagle sees a vulture with a piece of flesh, it will pursue him, and compel him to disgorge it; and the sportsman is not unfrequently foiled by this bird coming and bearing off the game before his eyes.

It is not improbable that similar habits of solitude in the lion and the eagle, together with their magnitude and strength, have given rise to their titles, so generally current, of king of beasts-king of birds. Jons

ton says in an old work, "England by a Person of Quality: "—" The eagle challengeth the first place, not that it is the best dish at table, for none will eat it, but because it is the king of birds." The ancient Greeks were of the same opinion, for Pindar speaks of "the great eagle, the chief magistrate of the birds."

Dignity and majesty are the common attributes of the eagle. Hence Mrs. Hemans, addressing one of these birds which has been wounded, thus speaks:

Eagle! this is not thy sphere !

Warrior bird, what seek'st thou here?
Wherefore by the fountain's brink
Doth thy royal pinion sink?
Wherefore on the violet's bed

Lay'st thou thus thy drooping head?
Thou, that hold'st the blast in scorn,

Thou, that wear'st the wings of morn!

Eagle Eagle! thou hast bowed
From thine empire o'er the cloud!
Thou that hadst ethereal birth,

Thou hast stoop'd too near the earth,
And the hunter's shaft hath found thee,
And the toils of death hath bound thee—
Wherefore did'st thou leave thy place,
Creature of a kingly race?

Stern and unsocial in their character, yet confident in their strength and efficient means of defense, the eagles delight to dwell in the solitude of inaccessible rocks, on whose summits they build their rude nest and sit in lone majesty, while with their keen and piercing eye they sweep the plains below, even to the horizon. The combined extent and minuteness of their vision, often including not merely towns, villages, and districts, but countries and even kingdoms in its vast circuit, at the same time carefully piercing the depths of forests, the mazes of swamps, and the intricacies of lawns and meadows, so as to discover every moving object-even the sly and stealthy animals that constitute their prey-form a power of sight to which human experience makes no approach. If we connect with this amazing gift of vision the power of flight which enables these birds to shoot through the heavens so as to pass from one zone to another in a single day and at a single flight, we shall readily comprehend how it is that they have in all ages so impressed the popular imagination as to render them the standing types and emblems of power. In ancient times the lion. was the representative of kings, but the eagle, soaring in the sky, was made the companion of the gods, and the constant associate of Jupiter himself.

Although in our days the carrying off of Ganymede is not re-enacted, yet the inhabitants of mountainous countries have some ground for accusing the eagles of bearing off their children. A well known fact of this kind took place in the Valais in 1838. A little girl, five years old, called Marie Delex, was playing with one of her companions on a mossy slope of the mountain, when all at once an eagle swooped down upon her and carried her away in spite of the cries and presence of her young friend, Some peasants, hearing the screams, hastened to the spot, but sought in vain for the child, for they found nothing but one of her shoes on the edge of the precipice. The child, however, was not carried to the eagle's nest, where only two eaglets were seen, surrounded by heaps of goat and sheep bones. It was not till two months after this that a shepherd discovered the corpse of Marie Delex, frightfully mutilated, upon a rock half a league from where she had been borne off.

Eagle and Child in the Air.

An instance of this kind, which occurred in the autumn of 1868, is thus narrated by a teacher in county Tippah, Mississippi: A sad casualty occurred at my school a few days ago. The eagles have been very troublesome in the neighborhood for some time past, carrying off pigs and lambs. No one thought they would attempt to prey upon children; but on Thursday, at recess, the little boys were out some distance from the house, playing marbles, when their sport was interrupted by a large eagle sweeping down and picking up little Jemmie Kenney, a boy of eight years, and flying away with him. The children cried out, and when I got out of the house, the eagle was so high that I could just hear the child screaming. The alarm was given, and from screaming and shouting in the air, the eagle was induced to drop his victim; but his talons had been buried in him so deeply, and the fall was so great, that he was killed.

The Abbé Spallanzani had a common, or black eagle, which was so powerful, that it could easily kill dogs much larger than itself. When a dog was cruelly forced into the room where the eagle was kept, it immediately ruffled the feathers on its head and neck, taking a short flight, alighted on the back of its victim, held the neck firmly with one foot, so that there could be no turning of the head to bite, while one of the flanks was grasped with the other, and in this attitude the eagle continued, till the dog, with fruitless cries and struggles, expired. The beak, hitherto unemployed, was now used to make a small hole in the skin; this was gradually enlarged, and from it the eagle tore away and devoured the flesh.