Miscellaneous. An Eagle with a History.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1857, 31 May 1884, Page 6

Miscellaneous.

An Eagle with a History.

A Berlin newspaper reports a striking combat between a dog and an eagle, in which the latter was victorions. At Fmstenwalde, in the province of Brandenburg, a field-laborer heard a dog howling in a most dismal matter. Bunniug in the direotion -whence the sounds came, he saw a large bird perched on the back of the watchdog of a, neighboring farmer, and the two were struggling, half in the air, half on the ground. At last they passed into a copse. He ran and called the baliff of the place where he was working. Beturning to the spot, they saw the bird hopping a few paces, and moving with difficulty. He tried to fly, but was evidently disabled. A shot killed him. They found the dog dead, the flesh having been literally torn off his bones by his enemy. The bird was an eagle, of the species known as Aquila impcrialis, and measured seven feet between the tips of his wings. The dark, almost black, plumage, with the snow-white shoulders, gave a hint as to his age. On his left foot, just above the claws, was a ring made of a strong gold plate, on which were cut the letters, still quite visible, ' H. Ks. o. k.,' unkerneath which was the wore ' Eperies,' and on the other side the date—' 10. 9. 1827.' Eperies is a town in Upper Hungary, not very far from the Northern Carpathians. It would be a matter of extreme interest to trace the history of this farocious and gigantic bird. It may be assumed that the ring was placed upon his i foot after he had been full-grown, or nearly j so ; in which oase the king of birds must have lived, eagle and eaglet, at least sixty years. What a tale of adventures and rapine should we have, could anyone recount to us the life . of that eagle during the fifty, six years in which he carried about with him that golden j badge of his previous captivity ! i