Eagle, a bird of prey belonging to the falcon or hawk family. The golden eagle inhabits the mountainous parts of Europe, India, Africa, and North America. It is still found in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the eagle which not only furnished the chieftain's plume, but of which so many thrilling stories are told concerning the carrying away and the hazardous rescue of children. Shepherds especially dread the vicinity of a nest of eaglets, to the support of which so many lambs must be sacrificed. They climb the most inaccessible cliffs to destroy an eagle's nest. The golden eagle is not infrequent in the Rocky Mountains, but it is seldom seen east of the Mississippi River. It may be distinguished by a yellowish head and neck, with legs feathered quite to the toes. The bald eagle is so called from the whiteness of its head and neck, but it is not bald. As distinguished from the slightly smaller golden eagle, its leg is bare part way to the knee. This bird has been adopted as the national emblem. The length may be stated at 33 inches for the male and 35.5 for the female, with wing expanse of over 80 inches. Bald eagles breed throughout North America, nesting in trees not too far from water. They live chiefly on dead fish found along the shore, and on fish which they force the American osprey or fish-hawk to surrender. Pathetic tales are told of the fish-hawk winging home to its young with a hard earned fish in its talons, only to be intercepted by a lying-in-wait robber baron and forced to drop its fish, perhaps in sight and hearing of its hungry young screaming for supper. Historically the eagle, species uncertain, is considered a noble bird, ranking with the lion, the king of beasts. Among ancients, the Persians and the Romans, and later France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria have adopted the eagle as a military symbol. It is to be regretted that traditional association of ideas should have led to the selection of a homely, greedy, lazy robber, with a maniacal scream,-the American bald eagle,-as the emblem of the United States. W. T. Hornaday, an appreciative and an intelligent observer of birds, takes the opposite view: "Even when in flight, an eagle can be distinguished from all other birds by its slow and powerful wing-strokes, and the great breadth of its wings, especially near their extremities. To see one perching on the topmost branch of a dead tree, overlooking a water prospect, with its snowy head shining in the sunlight like frosted silver, is enough to thrill any beholder." The eagle is frequently referred to in literature. Thus Smollett speaks of the spirit of Independence as "Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye." "Methinks I see," says Milton, "a noble and puissant nation as an eagle mewing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam." "On eagles' wings immortal scandals fly," is Juvenal's graphic metaphor. See HAWK; FALCON. He clasps the crag with hooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls; And like a thunderbolt he falls. -Tennyson.