The time for an eagle to be on the wing
in search of prey is from midday to evening; in the morning until
the market-hour it remains on the nest. In old age the upper beak of
the eagle grows gradually longer and more crooked, and the bird dies
eventually of starvation; there is a folklore story that the eagle
is thus punished because it once was a man and refused entertainment
to a stranger. The eagle puts aside its superfluous food for its
young; for owing to the difficulty in procuring food day by day, it at
times may come back to the nest with nothing. If it catch a man
prowling about in the neighbourhood of its nest, it will strike him
with its wings and scratch him with its talons. The nest is built
not on low ground but on an elevated spot, generally on an
inaccessible ledge of a cliff; it does, however, build upon a tree.
The young are fed until they can fly; hereupon the parent-birds topple
them out of the nest, and chase them completely out of the locality.
The fact is that a pair of eagles demands an extensive space for its
maintenance, and consequently cannot allow other birds to quarter
themselves in close neighbourhood. They do not hunt in the vicinity of
their nest, but go to a great distance to find their prey.
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