make him acquainted with the lure. This lure is only a thing stuffed like the bird the falcon is designed to pursue, such as a heron, a pigeon, or a quail, and on this lure they always take care to give him his food. It is quite necessary that the bird should not only be acquainted with this, but fond of it, and delicate in his food when shown it. The use of this lure is to flatter him back when he has flown in the air, which he sometimes fails to do; and it is always requisite to assist it by the voice and the signs of the master. When the familiarity and the docility of the bird are sufficiently confirmed on the green, he is then carried into the open fields, but still kept fast by a string which is about twenty yards long. He is then uncovered as before; and the falconer calling him, at some paces distance, till he comes at last to fly to it. The next day the lure is shown him at a greater distance, till he comes at last to fly to it at the utmost length of his string. He is then to be shown the game itself alive, but disabled or tame, which he is designed to pursue. After having seized this several times with his string, he is then left entirely at liberty, and carried into the field for the purposes of pursuing that which is wild. At that he flies with avidity; and when he has seized it or killed it, he is brought back by the voice and the lure.

By this method of instruction, a hawk may be taught to fly at any game whatsoever; but falconers have chiefly confined their pursuit only to such animals as yield them profit by the capture, or pleasure in the pursuit. The hare, the partridge, and the quail, repay the trouble of taking them; but the most delightful sport is the falcon's pursuit of the heron, the kite, or the woodlark. Instead of flying directly forward, as some other birds do, these, when they see themselves threatened by the approach of the hawk, immediately take to the skies. They fly almost perpendicularly upward, while their ardent pursuer keeps pace with their flight, and tries to rise above them. Thus both diminish by degrees from the gazing spectator below, till they are quite lost in the clouds; but they are soon seen descending, struggling together, and using every effort on both sides; the one of rapacious insult, the other of desperate defence. The unequal combat is soon at an end; the falcon comes off victorious, and the other, killed or disabled, is made a prey either to the bird or the sportsman.

THE GOLDEN EAGLEL

Is one of the largest and noblest of all those birds that have received the name of eagle. The length of the female is three feet and a half; the extent of its wings, eight and a half; it weighs from sixteen to eighteen pounds; but the male seldom weighs more than twelve pounds. Its bill is three

1 Falco fulvus, GMEL.

inches long, and of a deep blue; and the eye of a very brilliant hazel color. The sight and sense of smelling are very acute. The head and neck are clothed with narrow, sharp-pointed feathers, of a deep brown color bordered with tawny; but those on the crown of the head, in very old birds, turn gray. The whole body, above as well as beneath, is of a dark brown; and the feathers of the back are finely clouded with a deeper shade of the same. The wings when clothed reach to the end of the tail. The quill feathers are of a chocolate color, the shafts white. The tail is of a deep brown, irregularly barred and blotched with an obscure ash color, and usually white at the roots of the feathers. The legs are yellow, short, and very strong, being three inches in circumference, and feathered to the very feet. The toes are covered with large scales, and armed with the most formidable claws, the middle of which are two inches long.

This eagle inhabits the highest mountains of the north of Europe and America, and preys on fawns, lambs, hares, and large birds. It soars to a prodigious height. An individual was kept at Vienna, which lived one hundred and four years.

In general all eagles are found in the mountainous and ill peopled countries, and breed among the loftiest cliffs. They choose those places which are remotest from man, upon whose possessions they but seldom make their depredations, being contented rather to follow the wild game in the forest, than to risk their safety to satisfy their hunger.

It requires great patience and much art to tame an eagle; and even though taken young, and brought under by long assiduity, yet still it is a dangerous domestic, and often turns its force against its master. When brought into the field for the purposes of fowling, the falconer is never sure

of its attachment; the innate pride, and love of liberty, still prompt it to regain its native solitudes; and the moment the falconer sees it, when let loose, first stoop towards the ground, and then rise perpendicularly into the clouds, he gives up all his former labor for lost; quite sure of never beholding his late prisoner more. Sometimes, however, they are brought to have an attachment for their feeder; they are then highly serviceable, and liberally provide for his pleasures and support. When the falconer lets them go from his hand, they play about and hover round him till their game presents, which they see at an immense distance, and pursue with certain destruction. They have, however, never been used in European falconry. It is only in the east that they have been so employed.

Of all animals the eagle flies highest, and on this account he was called by the ancients the Bird of Jove. When M. Ramond ascended Mont Perdu, in the Pyrenees, nearly three miles above the level of the sea, he saw a golden eagle far above him, dashing rapidly to windward against a strong gale. Of all birds, also, the eagle has the quickest eye; but his sense of smelling is far inferior to that of the vulture. He never pursues, therefore, but in sight; and when he has seized his prey, he stoops from his height, as if to examine its weight, always laying it on the ground before he carries it off. As his wing is very powerful, yet, as he has but little suppleness in the joints of the leg, he finds it difficult to rise when down; however, if not instantly pursued, he finds no difficulty in carrying off geese and cranes. He also carries away hares, lambs, and kids; and often destroys fawns and calves, to drink their blood, and carries a part of their flesh to his retreat. Infants themselves, when left unattended, have been destroyed by these rapacious creatures; which probably gave rise to the fable of Ganymede's being snatched up by an eagle to heaven.

An instance is recorded in Scotland of two children being carried off by eagles; but fortunately they received no hurt by the way; and, the eagles being pursued, the children were restored unhurt out of the nests to the affrighted parents.

The eagle is thus at all times a formidable neighbor; but peculiarly so when bringing up its young. It is then that the female, as well as the male, exert all their force and industry to supply their young. Smith, in his History of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that country got a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of food, which were plentifully supplied by the old ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual time, by clipping the wings, and retarding the flight of the young.

It happened some time ago, in the same country, that a peasant resolved to rob the nest of an eagle, that had built in a small island, in the beautiful lake of Killarney. He accordingly stripped and swam in upon the island, while the old ones were away; and, robbing the nest of its young, he was preparing to swim back, with the eaglets tied in a string; but, while he was

yet up to his chin in the water, the old eagles returned, and, missing their young, quickly fell upon the plunderer, and, in spite of all his resistance, dispatched him with their beaks and talons.

In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which entitles any person that kills an eagle, to a hen out of every house in the parish in which the plunderer is killed.

The nest of the eagle is usually built in the most inaccessible cliff of the rock, and often shielded from the weather by some jutting crag that hangs over it. Sometimes, however, it is wholly exposed to the winds, as well sideways as above; for the nest is flat, though built with great labor. It is said that the same nest serves the eagle during life; and indeed, the pains bestowed in forming it, seem to argue as much. It is asserted, that as soon as the young ones are somewhat grown, the mother kills the most feeble or the most voracious. If this happens, it must proceed only from the necessities of the parent, who is incapable of providing for their support, and is content to sacrifice a part to the welfare of the majority. After a male and female have paired, they remain together for life, and never change their place of abode.

The plumage of the eaglets is not so strongly marked as when they come to be adult. They are at first white; then inclined to yellow; and at last light brown. Age, hunger, long captivity, and diseases, make them whiter. It is said that they live above a hundred years; and that they at last die, not of old age, but from the beak turning inward upon the under mandible, and thus preventing their taking any food. They are indeed equally remarkable for their longevity, and for their power of sustaining a long absence from food. One of this species, which was lately nine years in the possession of Mr Owen Holland, of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the gentleman who made him a present of it; but what its age was when the latter received it from Ireland is unknown. The same bird also furnishes a proof of the truth of the other remarks; having once, through the neglect of servants, endured hunger for twenty-one days, without any sustenance whatever. But this is still less extraordinary than an instance recorded by Buffon, who was assured, by a person of veracity, that one of these birds being caught in a fox trap, existed for five entire weeks without aliment. It showed no appearance of languor till the last eight days, and it was killed at length in order to deliver it from its sufferings. The eagle seldom drinks, as its principal aliment is raw flesh, which contains in itself a sufficient quantity of moisture.

Is probably the young of the golden eagle, though formerly considered a distinct species. When young, the body is of a lighter color than that bird, but deepens into a blackish brown as the eagle advances in age.

The tail feathers of this bird are highly valued by the various tribes of American Indians, for ornamenting their calumets or pipes of peace. The ring-tailed eagle is characterized as a generous spirited and docile bird. Its solitary habits, the vast inaccessible cliffs to which it usually retires, united with the scarcity of the species in those regions inhabited by man, all combine to render a particular knowledge of its habits very difficult to be obtained.

THE OSPREY EAGLE.1

THIS bird and the sea eagle have often been confounded with each other. They are, however, very different. The osprey, both male and female, is much smaller than the sea eagle; the tarsi of the osprey are scaly and naked, while those of the sea eagle are feathered part of the way; the osprey may be trained to catch fish for its keeper, but the sea eagle will not

serve a master.

1 Falco haliætus, LIN.