tory, in telling us that the said lion, in roaring, | Vauxhall. Besides, an eagle does not, when laid his monstrous mouth close to the floor." descending on her prey, fall like a rock. There We believe he does so; but did Mr. Atherstone is nothing like the "vis inertia" in her prelearn the fact from Cuvier or from Wombwell? cipitation. You still see the self-willed energy It is always dangerous to a poet to be too of the ravenous bird, as the mass of plumes picturesque; and in this case, you are made, flashes in the spray-of which, by the by, there whether you will or no, to see an old, red, lean, never was, nor will be, a column so raised. mangy monster, called a lion, in his unhappy | She is as much the queen of birds as she sinks den in a menagerie, bathing his beard in the as when she soars-her trust and her power saw-dust, and from his toothless jaws "breath- are still seen and felt to be in her pinions, ing hot roarings out," to the terror of servant- whether she shoots to or from the zenith-to girls and children, in fierce reply to a man in a falling star she might be likened-just as a hairy cap and full suit of velveteen, stirring any other devil-either by Milton or Wordshim up with a long pole, and denominating worth-for such a star seems to our eye and him by the sacred name of the great asserter our imagination ever instinct with spirit, not of Scottish independence. to be impelled by exterior force, but to be selfshot from heaven.

Sir Humphry Davy-in his own science the first man of his age-does not shine in his "Salmonia"-pleasant volume though it be as an ornithologist. Let us see.

"POIET. The scenery improves as we advance nearer the lower parts of the lake. The mountains become higher, and that small island or peninsula presents a bold craggy outline; and the birch-wood below it, and the pines above, make a scene somewhat Alpine in character. But what is that large bird soaring above the pointed rock, towards the end of the lake? Surely it is an eagle!

HAL. You are right; it is an eagle, and of a rare and peculiar species-the gray or silver eagle, a noble bird! From the size of the animal, it must be the female; and her eyrie is that high rock. I dare say the male is not far off."

Upon our word, we begin to believe that we ourselves deserve the name of Poietes much better than the gentleman who at threescore had never seen an eagle. "She has fallen from a great height," quoth the gentleman "What an extraordinary sight!" he continueth -while we are mute as the oar suspended by the up-gazing Celt, whose quiet eye brightens as it pursues the Bird to her eyrie in the cliff over the cove where the red-deer feed.

Poietes having given vent to his emotions in such sublime exclamations-" Look at the bird!" "What an extraordinary sight!" might have thenceforth held his tongue, and said no more about eagles. But Halieus cries, "There! you see her rise with a fish in her talons"and Poietes, very simply, or rather like a simpleton, returns for answer, "She gives an Sir Humphry speaks in his introductory interest which I hardly expected to have found in pages of Mr. Wordsworth as a lover of fishing this scene. Pray, are there many of these animals and fishermen; and we cannot help thinking in this country?" A poet hardly expecting to and feeling that he intends Poietes as an image find interest in such a scene as a great Highof that great Poet. What! William Words- land loch-Loch Maree!" Pray, are there many worth, the very high-priest of nature, repre- of these hanimals in this country?" Loud cries of sented to have seen an eagle for the first time Oh! oh! oh! No doubt an eagle is an aniin his life only then, and to have boldly ven- mal; like Mr. Cobbett or Mr. O'Connell “ a tured on a conjecture that such was the name very fine animal;" but we particularly, and and nature of the bird! "But what is that earnestly, and anxiously, request Sir Humphry large bird soaring above the pointed rock, to- Davy not to call her so again-but to use the wards the end of the lake? Surely it is an term bird, or any other term he chooses, exeagle!" "Yes, you are right—it is an eagle.” | cept animal. Animal, a living creature, is too Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sir Humphry-general, too vague by far; and somehow or Sir Humphry-that guffaw was not ours-it other it offends our ear shockingly, when apcame from the Bard of Rydal-albeit unused to the laughing mood-in the haunted twilight of that beautiful-that solemn Terrace.

plied to an eagle. We may be wrong, but in a trifling matter of this kind Sir Humphry surely will not refuse our supplication. Let him call a horse an animal, if he chooses-or an ass-or a cow-but not an eagle-as he loves us, not an eagle;-let him call it a bird -the Bird of Jove-the Queen or King of the Sky-or any thing else he chooses-but not an animal-no-no-no-not an animal, as he hopes to prosper, to be praised in Maga, embalmed and immortalized.

Poietes having been confirmed, by the authority of Halieus, in his belief that the bird is an eagle, exclaims, agreeably to the part he plays, "Look at the bird! She dashes into the water, falling like a rock and raising a column of spray-she has fallen from a great height. And now she rises again into the air-what an extraordinary sight!" Nothing is so annoying as to be ordered to look at a sight which, un- Neither ought Poietes to have asked if there less you shut your eyes, it is impossible for were "many of these animals" in this country. you not to see. A person behaving in a boat He ought to have known that there are not like Poietes, deserved being flung overboard. many of these animals in any country. Eagles "Look at the bird!" Why, every eye was are proud-apt to hold their heads very high aiready upon her; and if Poietes had had a—and to make themselves scarce. single spark of poetry in his composition, he would have been struck mute by such a sight, instead of bawling out, open-mouthed and goggle-eyed, like a Cockney to a rocket at

A great

many eagles all flying about together would look most absurd. They are aware of that, and fly in "ones and twos"- -a couple perhaps to a county. Poietes might as well have asked

Mungo Park if there were a great many lions | tus,) which is rather a large fishing-hawk than in Africa. Mungo, we think, saw but one; an eagle, there are two kinds, viz.-the GOLDEN and that was one too much. There were probably a few more between Sego and Timbuctoo-but there are not a "great many of those animals in that country"-though quite sufficient for the purpose. How the Romans contrived to get at hundreds for a single show, perplexes our power of conjecture.

Halieus says-with a smile on his lip surely -in answer to the query of Poietes-" Of this species I have seen but these two; and, I believe, the young ones migrate as soon as they can provide for themselves; for this solitary bird requires a large space to move and feed in, and does not allow its offspring to partake its reign, or to live near it." This is all pretty true, and known to every child rising or risen six, except poor Poietes. He had imagined that there were "many of these animals in this country," that they all went a-fishing together as amicably as five hundred sail of Manksmen among a shoal of herrings.

EAGLE, (F. Chrysaëtos,) and the WHITE-Tailed or CINEROUS EAGLE, (F. Albicilla.) The other two nominal species are disposed of in the following manner:-First, the RING-TAILED EAGLE (F. Fulvus) is the young of the Golden Eagle, being distinguished in early life by having the basal and central portion of the tail white, which colour disappears as the bird attains the adult state. Second, the SEA EAGLE, (F. Ossifragus,) commonly so called, is the young of the White-tailed Eagle above named, from which it differs in having a brown tail; for in this species the white of the tail becomes every year more apparent as the bird increases in age, whereas, in the Golden Eagle, the white altogether disappears in the adult.

It is to the RING-TAILED EAGLE, and, by consequence, to the GOLDEN EAGLE, that the name of BLACK EAGLE is applied in the Highlands.

It preys often on fish dead or alive; but not

The White-tailed or Sea Eagle, as it beThroughout these Dialogues we have ob- comes old, attains, in addition to the pure tail, served that Ornither rarely opens his mouth. a pale or bleached appearance, from which it Why so taciturn? On the subject of birds he may merit and obtain the name of Gray or ought, from his name, to be well informed; SILVER EAGLE, as Sir Humphry Davy chooses and how could he let slip an opportunity, such to call it; but it is not known among naturalas will probably never be afforded him again ists by that name. There is no other species, in this life, of being eloquent on the Silver however, to which the name can apply; and, Eagle? Ornithology is surely the department therefore, Sir Humphry has committed the very of Ornither. Yet there is evidently something gross mistake of calling the Gray or Silver odd and peculiar in his idiosyncrasy; for we Eagle (to use his own nomenclature) a very observe that he never once alludes to "these rare Eagle, since it is the most common of all animals," birds, during the whole excursion. | the Scots, and also-a fortiori-of all the EnHe has not taken his gun with him into the glish Eagles-being in fact the SEA EAGLE of Highlands, a sad oversight indeed in a gentle- the Highlands. man who "is to be regarded as generally fond of the sports of the field." Flappers are plen-exclusively, as it also attacks young lambs, tiful over all the moors about the middle of and drives off the ravens from carrion prey, July; and hoodies, owls, hawks, ravens, make being less fastidious in its diet than the GOLDEN all first-rate shooting to sportsmen not over EAGLE, which probably kills its own meat— anxious about the pot. It is to be presumed, and has been known to carry off children; for too, that he can stuff birds. What noble spe- a striking account of one of which hay-field cimens might he not have shot for Mr. Selby! robberies you have but a few minutes to wait. On one occasion, "the SILVER EAGLE" is As to its driving off its young, its habits are preying in a pool within slug range, and there probably similar in this respect to other birds is some talk of shooting him-we suppose with of prey, none of which appear to keep together an oar, or the butt of a fishing-rod, for the party in families after the young can shift for themhave no fire-arms-but Poietes insists on spar- selves; but we have never met with any one ing his life, because "these animals" are a who has seen them in the act of driving. It is picturesque accompaniment to the scenery, stated vaguely, in all books, of all eagles. and "give it an interest which he had not expected to find" in mere rivers, lochs, moors, and mountains. Genus Falco must all the while have been laughing in his sleeve at the whole party-particularly at Ornither-who, to judge from his general demeanour, may be a fair shot with number five at an old news-it; but Halieus needed not have stated this cirpaper expanded on a barn-door twenty yards off, but never could have had the audacity to think in his most ambitious mood of letting off his gun at an Eagle.

As to its requiring a large range to feed in we have only to remark that, from the powerful flight of these birds, and the wild and barren nature of the countries which they inhabit, there can be no doubt that they fly far, and "prey in distant isles"-as Thomson has

cumstance as a character of this peculiar eagle for an eagle with a small range does not exist; and therefore it is to be presumed that they require a large one."

But further, Halieus, before he took upon Further, all this being the case, there seems him to speak so authoritatively about eagles, to be no necessity for the old eagles giving should have made himself master of their themselves the trouble to drive off the young names and natures. He is manifestly no sci- ones, who by natural instinct will fly off of entific ornithologist. We are. The general their own accord, as soon as their wings can question concerning Eagles in Scotland may bear them over the sea. If an eagle were so now be squeezed into very small compass. partial to his native vale, as never on any Exclusive of the true Osprey, (Falco Haliæ-account, hungry or thirsty, drunk or sober, to

venture into the next parish, why then the old | people would be forced, on the old principle of self-preservation, to pack off their progeny to bed and board beyond Benevis. But an eagle is a Citizen of the World. He is friendly to the views of Mr. Huskisson on the Wool Trade, the Fisheries, and the Colonies—and acts upon the old adage,

"Every bird for himself, and God for us all!"'

swan, half rowing, half sailing, and half flying adown a river-now like an eagle afloat in the blue ocean of heaven, or shooting sunwards, invisible in excess of light-and bidding farewell to earth and its humble shadows. "O that I had the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be at rest!" Who hath not, in some heavy hour or other, from the depth of his very soul, devoutly-passionately-hopelesslybreathed that wish to escape beyond the limits To conclude, for the present, this branch of of wo and sin-not into the world of dreamour subject, we beg leave humbly to express less death; for weary though the immortal our belief, that Sir Humphry Davy never saw pilgrim may have been, never desired he the the Eagle, by him called the Gray or Silver, doom of annihilation, untroubled although it hunting for fish in the style described in Sal- be, shorn of all the attributes of being—but he monia. It does not dislike fish-but it is not has prayed for the wings of the dove, because its nature to keep hunting for them so, not in that fair creature, as she wheeled herself away the Highlands at least, whatever it may do on from the sight of human dwellings, has seemed American continent or isles. Sir Humphry to disappear to his imagination among old talks of the bird dashing down repeatedly upon glimmering forests, wherein she foldeth her a pool within shot of the anglers. We have wing and falleth gladly asleep-and therefore, angled fifty times in the Highlands for Sir in those agitated times when the spirits of men Humphry's once, but never saw nor heard of acknowledge kindred with the inferior creasuch a sight. He has read of such things, and tures, and would fain interchange with them introduced them into this dialogue for the sake powers and qualities, they are willing even to of effect—all quite right to do—had his reading lay down their intelligence, their reason, their lain among trustworthy Ornithologists. The conscience itself, so that they could but be common Eagle-which he ignorantly, as we blessed with the faculty of escaping from all have seen, calls so rare-is a shy bird, as all the agonies that intelligence, and reason, and shepherds know-and is seldom within range conscience alone can know, and beyond the of the rifle. Gorged with blood, they are some-reach of this world's horizon to flee away and times run in upon and felled with a staff or be at rest! club. So perished, in the flower of his age, that Eagle whose feet now form handles to the bell-ropes of our Sanctum at Buchanan Lodge -and are the subject of a clever copy of verses by Mullion, entitled "All the Talons."

We said in "The Moors," that we envied not the eagle or any other bird his wings, and showed cause why we preferred our own feet. Had Puck wings? If he had, we retract, and would sport Puck.

Oberon.

'Fetch me this herb-and be thou here again, Ere the Leviathan can swim a league."

Puck.

"I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes."

Puck says he will put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes. At what rate is that per second, taking the circumference of the earth at 27,000 miles, more or less? There is a question for the mechanics, somewhat about as difficult of solution as Lord Brougham's celebrated one of the Smuggler and the Revenue Cutter-for the solution of which he recommended the aid of algebra. It is not so quick as you would imagine. We forget the usual rate of a cannon-ball in good condition, when he is in training—and before he is at all blown. So do we forget, we are sorry to confess, the number of centuries that it would take a good, stout, well-made, able-bodied cannonball, to accomplish a journey to our planet from one of the fixed stars. The great difficulty, we confess, would be to get him safely conveyed thither. If that could be done, we should have no fear of his finding his way back, if not in our time, in that of our posterity. However red-hot he might have been on starting, he would be cool enough, no doubt, on his arrival at the goal; yet we should have no objection to back him against Time for a trifle-Time, we observe, in almost all matches being beat, often indeed by the most miserable hacks, that can with difficulty raise a gallop. Time, however, possibly runs booty; for when he does make play, it must be confessed that he is a spanker, and that nothing has been seen with such a stride since Eclipse.

How infinitely more poetical are wings like these than seven-league boots! We declare, on our conscience, that we would not accept the present of a pair of seven-league boots tomorrow-or, if we did, it would be out of mere politeness to the genie who might press them on us, and the wisest thing we could do would be to lock them up in a drawer out of the reach of the servants. Suppose that we wished to walk from Clovenford to Innerleithen-why, with seven-league boots on, one single step would take us up to Posso, seven miles above Peebles! That would never do. By mincing one's steps, indeed, one might contrive to stop at Innerleithen; but suppose a gad-fly were to sting one's hip at the Pirn-one unintentional O beautiful and beloved Highland Parish! in stride would deposit Christopher at Drummel-whose dashing glens our beating heart first felt zier, and another over the Cruik, and far away down Annan water! Therefore, there is nothing like wings. On wings you can flutter -and glide—and float and soar-now like a humming-bird among the flowers-now like a

the awe of solitude, and learned to commune (alas! to what purpose?) with the tumult of its own thoughts! The circuit of thy skies was indeed a glorious arena spread over the mountain-tops for the combats of the great

birds of prey! One wild cry or another was in the lift-of the hawk, or the glead, or the raven, or the eagle-or when those fiends slept, of the peaceful heron, and sea-bird by wandering boys pursued in its easy flight, till the snow-white child of ocean wavered away far inland, as if in search of a steadfast happiness unknown on the restless waves. Seldom did the eagle stoop to the challenge of the inferior fowl; but when he did, it was like a mailed knight treading down unknown men in battle. The hawks, and the gleads, and the ravens, and the carrion-crows, and the hooded-crows, and the rooks, and the magpies, and all the rest of the rural militia, forgetting their own feuds, sometimes came sallying from all quarters, with even a few facetious jackdaws from the old castle, to show fight with the monarch of the air. Amidst all that multitude of wings winnowing the wind, was heard the sough and whizz of those mighty vans, as the Royal Bird, himself an army, performed his majestic evolutions with all the calm confidence of a master in the art of aerial war, now shooting up halfa-thousand feet perpendicular, and now suddenly plumb-down into the rear of the croaking, cawing, and chattering battalions, cutting off their retreat to the earth. Then the rout became general, the missing, however, far outnumbering the dead. Keeping possession of the field of battle, hung the eagle for a short while motionless-till with one fierce yell of triumph he seemed to seek the sun, and disappear like a speck in the light, surveying half of Scotland at a glance, and a thousand of her isles.

with laughter, whistle, and song. But the Treegnomons threw the shadow of "one o'clock” on the green dial-face of the earth-the horses were unyoked, and took instantly to grazing— groups of men, women, lads, lasses, and children collected under grove, and bush, and hedge-row-graces were pronounced, some of them rather too tedious in presence of the mantling milk-cans, bullion-bars of butter, and crackling cakes; and the great Being who gave them that day their daily bread, looked down from his Eternal Throne, well-pleased with the piety of his thankful creatures.

The great Golden Eagle, the pride and the pest of the parish, stooped down, and away with something in his talons. One single sudden female shriek-and then shouts and outcries as if a church spire had tumbled down on a congregation at a sacrament. "Hannah Lamond's bairn! Hannah Lamond's bairn!" was the loud fast-spreading cry. "The Eagle's ta'en aff Hannah Lamond's bairn!" and many hundred feet were in another instant hurrying towards the mountain. Two miles of hill and dale, and copse and shingle, and many intersecting brooks, lay between; but in an incredibly short time the foot of the mountain was alive with people. The eyrie was well known, and both old birds were visible on the rockledge. But who shall scale that dizzy cliff, which Mark Steuart the sailor, who had been at the storming of many a fort, once attempted in vain? All kept gazing, or weeping, or wringing of hands, rooted to the ground, or running back and forwards, like so many ants essaying their new wings, in discomfiture. Some people have a trick of describing in- " What's the use-what's the use o' ony puir cidents as having happened within their own human means? We have nae power but in observation, when in fact they were at the time prayer!" And many knelt down-fathers and | lying asleep in bed, and disturbing the whole mothers thinking of their own babies-as if house with the snore of their dormitory. Such they would force the deaf heavens to hear. is too often the character of the eye-witnesses of the present age. Now, we would not claim personal acquaintance with an incident we had not seen-no, not for a hundred guineas per sheet; and, therefore, we warn the reader not to believe the following little story about an eagle and child (by the way, that is the Derby crest, and a favourite sign of inns in the north of England) on our authority. "I tell the tale as 'twas told to me," by the schoolmaster of Naemanslaws, in the shire of Ayr; and if the incident never occurred, then must he have been one of the greatest liars that ever taught the young idea how to shoot. For our single selves, we are by nature credulous. Many extraordinary things happen in this life, and though "seeing is believing," so likewise "believing is seeing," as every one must allow who

Hannah Lamond had all this while been sitting on a stone, with a face perfectly white, and eyes like those of a mad person, fixed on the eyrie. Nobody noticed her; for strong as all sympathies with her had been at the swoop of the Eagle, they were now swallowed up in the agony of eyesight. Only last Sabbath was my sweet wee wean baptized in the name o' the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost!" and on uttering these words, she flew off through the brakes and over the huge stones, up-up-up-faster than ever huntsman ran in to the death-fearless as a goat playing among the precipices. No one doubt. ed, no one could doubt, that she would soon be dashed to pieces. But have not people who walk in their sleep, obedient to the mysterious guidance of dreams, clomb the walls of old ruins, and found, footing, even in decrepitude, Almost all the people in the parish were along the edge of unguarded battlements, and leading in their meadow-hay (there were not in down dilapidated stair-cases deep as draw all its ten miles square twenty acres of rye-wells or coal-pits, and returned with open, grass) on the same day of midsummer, so dry- fixed, and unseeing eyes, unharmed to their ing was the sunshine and the wind, and huge beds at midnight? It is all the work of the heaped-up wains, that almost hid from view the horses that drew them along the sward, beginning to get green with second growth, were moving in all directions towards the snug farmyards. Never had the parish seemed before so populous. Jocund was the balmy air

reads these our Recreations.

soul, to whom the body is a slave; and shall not the agony of a mother's passion-who sees her baby, whose warm mouth had just left her breast, hurried off by a demon to a hideous death-bear her limbs aloft wherever there is dust to dust, till she reach that devouring den,