THE EAGLE’S PREY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1025, 11 May 1869, Page 2

THE EAGLE’S PREY.

[from the tribune.] A story is told of a child being captured by an eagle near Meigsville, Tenessee, on Christmas Eve, and carried about two miles before it was rescued. He was a bright little fellow, just old enough to be learning to walk. When no one was in the house, he managed to roll out of his trundle-bed and crawl into the front yard. A great grey eagle came swooping down, and fastened its immense talons in the clothing of the little boy, then rose up with much difficulty, and sailed off across the adjacent woods, just skimming the tops of the trees. Its course lay towards the Cumberland River. A servant girl saw the eagle, and gave chase. She dashed into the tangled wood, and tried to keep a straight line, thinking the bird would do the Same. The patch of wood was fully a mile and a-half through ; but the girl made the run to the other edge of it without feeling fatigue. Beyond the wood, and between it and the Cumberland River, lay a patch of cleared ground, partly marshy and partly corn-field, full of old stumps. When the girl left the wood, and had a clear view, she saw the eagle in the air, seemingly inclined to alight with his burden somewhere in the neighbourhood of the river. This gave her new courage. It happened that there was a man hunting in the neighbouring marshes, and just at the moment when tiie eagle reached the ground with his burden, a shot went off so dangerously near him that he mounted in the air again, but this time without the boy. The pursuing girl began a vigorous shouting as she ran, which attracted the hunter’s attention, who, seeing the eagle quite near him, and a lady rushing down the slope with streaming hair and garments, and wildly shouting, concluded at once that there was something strange, and perhaps dreadful, in his immediate vicinity, ; he also set upa vigorous halooing, and proceeded to reload his gun. The eagle soon became aware of the formidable opposition he would meet if he attempted to recapture his prey, hovered over the spot a moment, and then wheeled around in one grand sweep across the river, and disappeared behind the shelving rock which forms the opposite bank. When the girl came down to the hunter, she fell stiff, and was not able even to indicate what was the matter. The rough gallant then heard close at hand the scream of a child, and soon found a fine, healthy, rosy boy, with torn clothes, but otherwise uninjured, endeavouring to rise upon his little feet. Tears were streaming down his innocent cheeks, and his face wore a most piteous expression. The hunter took the baby in his arms and carried it to the girl, who was now recovered. She clasped it to her bosom, covered it with kisses, and wept with joy. The parents in the meantime had missed the little one, and had become very uneasy. There was laughing and crying enough when the wanderers returned and the wonderful voyage of the little fellow was explained.