His ferocity makes him a formidable enemy when attacked, and nature has provided him with a weapon of defence in his tusk, which is sometimes a foot in length. But dogs, trained for the purpose, often succeed in bringing him to the ground in spite of his efforts, and this dangerous sport is followed with great ardour on the continent. When the boar is driven from his covert, he goes forward with a slow pace and sullen air, and frequently turns back to his pursuers, grinding his teeth, and showing every indication of hostility. The dogs, aware of the danger of a close encounter, keep back, and bay him at a distance. After they have for awhile gazed upon each other with mutual animosity, the boar again pursues his way, still followed at a cautious distance by the dogs. In this manner the pursued and the pursuers continue, until the boar, exhausted with fatigue, stops to rest. This is the moment chosen by the dogs for an attack. The boar defends himself with the greatest courage, and frequently overcomes his tormentors, but a fresh enemy awaits him in the hunter, who with his long and pointed spear generally succeeds in killing him.

In former days the boar hunt was a favourite sport in our own country, when the soil was covered with forests, which afforded a convenient lurking place for these animals. It was considered the best pastime for royalty, and any person who was found infringing upon this privilege suffered the loss of his eyes as a punishment. Happily for the present age, no such oppression can exist and instead of lands being wasted to afford amusement to fickle princes, we have a country fertile and useful, yielding its abundance under the careful hand of the husbandman, and cheering our hearts with its rich beauty.

The tawny eagle seats his callow brood

High on the cliff, and feasts his young with blood.
On Snowden's rocks, or Orkney's wide domain,
Whose beetling cliffs o'erhang the western main,
The royal bird his lonely kingdom forms
Amid the gathering clouds and sullen storms;
Through the wide waste of air he darts his sight,
And holds his sounding pinions poised for flight;
With cruel eye premeditates the war,

And marks his destin'd victim from afar;
Descending in a whirlwind to the ground,
His pinions like the rush of waters sound;
The fairest of the fold he bears away,

And to his nest compels the struggling prey."-Barbauld.

THE Eagle has been considered to bear the same dominion over birds which has been almost universally attributed to the lion over quadrupeds.

F

As the lion is not the largest of the four-footed tribe, so the eagle is not the largest of birds; but courage is equally conspicuous in both; they despise the small animals, and disregard their insults. It is only after a series of provocations, after being teased with the noisy or harsh notes of the raven or magpie, that the eagle determines to punish their insolence with death. Both disdain the possession of that property which is not the fruit of their own industry; rejecting with contempt the prey which is not procured by their own exertions. Both are remarkable for their temperance. The eagle seldom devours the whole of his game, but, like the lion, leaves the fragments to the other animals; and, though starving for want of prey, he disdains to feed upon carrion.

Formed by nature for a life of rapine and hostility, these birds are solitary and unsociable. They are also fierce, but not implacable; and though not easily tamed, are certainly capable of great docility, and in some cases, evince an attachment to those by whom they are kindly treated. This, however, happens but rarely; as the keeper is too often savage and unrelenting; and sometimes brings on himself a severe revenge. A gentleman who resided in the south of Scotland had some years ago a tame eagle, which the keeper one day injudiciously lashed with a horsewhip. About a week afterwards, the man chanced to stoop within reach of its chain, when the enraged animal, recollecting the late insult, flew in his face with so much violence, that he was terribly wounded, but was fortunately driven so far back by the blow as to be out of all further danger. The screams of the eagle alarmed the family, who found the poor man lying at some distance, equally stunned with the fright and the fall. The animal was still pacing and screaming in the most terrible rage; and just as the party withdrew, he broke his chain, by the violence of his exertions, and escaped for ever.

The Golden Eagle builds his nest in elevated rocks, dilapidated castles and towers, and other solitary places. Its form resembles that of a floor: its basis consisting of sticks about five or six feet in length, which are supported at each end, and covered with several layers of rushes and heath. It is generally placed in a dry and inaccessible situation; and the same nest is said to serve during the life of the architect.

An eagle's nest found in the Peak of Derbyshire, has been thus described: " It was made of great sticks, resting one end on the edge of a rock, the other on a birch tree. Upon these was a layer of heath, and on the heath rushes again; upon which lay one young one, and an addle egg; and by them a lamb, a hare, and three heath poults. The nest was about two yards square, and had no hollow in it."

The females generally lay two or three eggs, which are hatched in thirty days. They feed their young with the slain carcases of such

small animals as come in their way; and, though they are at all times formidable and ferocious, they are particularly so while nurturing their progeny.

It is said that an Irish peasant in the county of Kerry once got a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a summer of great scarcity, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of their food, which was plentifully furnished by the parents. He stopped their progress beyond the usual time, by clipping the wings, and thus retarding the flight of the young; and tying them so as to increase their cries, which is always found to increase the dispatch of the parents in supplying their wants. It was a fortunate circumstance, however, that the old ones did not detect their plunderer, as their resentment might, in all probability, have proved fatal; for a countryman, not many years ago, resolved to rob an eagle's nest, which he knew to be built in a small island in the beautiful lake of Killarney, and accordingly stripped himself for this purpose, and swam over when the old birds were gone; but, in his return, while yet up to the chin in water, the parents coming home, and missing their offspring, quickly fell on the plunderer, and in spite of all his resistance, dispatched him with their formidable beaks and talons.

Several instances have been recorded, of children being seized and carried off by these rapacious animals. Pontoppidan relates, that in the year 1737, in the parish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy somewhat more than two years old was running from the house to his parents, who were at work in the fields at no great distance, when an eagle pounced upon, and flew off with him in their sight. It was with grief and anguish that they beheld their child dragged away, but all their screams and efforts to prevent it were in vain. Anderson also asserts that, in Iceland, children of four or five years of age have been sometimes taken away by eagles; and Ray relates, that, in one of the Orkneys, a child of twelve months old was seized in the talons of an eagle, and carried above four miles to its nest. The mother, however, knowing the place, pursued the bird, found her child in the nest, and took it away unhurt. Perhaps it was some daring adventure of this kind that gave rise to the fable of Ganymede's being snatched up to heaven by an eagle.

The following story is related by a gentleman of unquestionable veracity. While upon his travels in France he was invited by an officer of distinction to pass a few days at his country seat. While there the table was every day plentifully supplied with wild fowl, but he was not a little surprised to observe that not one was served up which had not undergone some mutilation; some wanting wings, and others legs or heads. This being so invariably the case, he was at length induced to inquire into the cause, when his host replied that it

was solely to be attributed to the voracious appetite of his provider, who could not be prevented from first tasting what he had prepared. This, instead of allaying, rather excited his curiosity, which the officer observing, he satisfied by explaining himself in this manner: "These mountainous parts of the kingdom are much frequented by eagles, who build their nests in the cavities of the neighbouring rocks; these are sought after by the shepherds, who, having discovered one, erect a little hut at the foot of the rock to screen themselves from these dangerous birds, which are particularly furious when they have young ones to supply with provisions; in this employment the male is busily engaged for the space of three months, and the female continues it

until the young bird is capable of quitting the nest; when that time arrives they force him to spring up in the air, where they support him with their wings and talons, whenever he is in danger of falling. While the young eagle continues in the nest, the parents ravage all the neighbouring country, and seize every kind of poultry, pheasants, hares,

partridges, or kids, which come in their way, all of which they carry to their

stay to deposit their cargo, and the moment they have left the nest the shepherds mount the rocks and take away what the eagles have brought, leaving the entrails of some animal in its stead; but as this cannot be