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Show EAGLES AND THEIB PREY. Ornithologists are inclined to discourage the idea that eagles are in the habit ot attacking large animals, but a contest witnessed by an observer and recorded in the Scotsman dispels such a theory. The battle was between an eagle and a stag. The bird singled- out from a herd one particular buck, which It succeeded In driving from the rest. It struck the animal ani-mal with Its powerful wings, knocked it down and finally killed It. A still more remarkable spectacle is well authenticated. An eagle attacked a fawn In the highlands. The cries of the little one were answered by its dam, which sprang upon the eagle and struck It repeatedly with Its forefeet. Pawn, deer and eagle rolled down a declivity, the bird was dislodged from Its bold and the fawn rescued. V . - Many traditions arextant as to the carrying car-rying off of chlldreny eagles. The most recent case bearing close scrutiny Is one which happened In South Africa. A Boer farmer whose stock had been harried by eagles lay In ambush for the robbers, and saw one of them descend and carry off the five-year-old child of one of his Kaffir Kaf-fir servants. He shot the bird, which, with, the child still clutched In its grip, fell, into a thorn bush. The bird was dead, but the child was little hurt. Two eagles will stalk a covert In concert. con-cert. While one conceals Itself the other beats about the bushes with great screaming, scream-ing, driving out its quarry for the hidden hid-den eagle to swoop down upon. An even more insidious method has been observed. An eagle, seeing a sheep on the edge of a precipice, flew at It, screaming shrilly, and with forceful beat of wing hurled it into the valley below, where It could devour de-vour it at leisure. In the light of such records there is good reason for believing the legend of the eagle dropping a tortoise tor-toise on the bald head of Eschylus. the Greek poet, and so causing his death. Youth's Companion. |