The most powerful of the eagles is the Golden Eagle, so called because
of the rich yellowish-brown bordering to its feathers. It makes its nest
in the clefts of the rocky sides of the mountains, and seldom on a tree,
unless where one has sprung up in between the clefts, and the tangled
roots make a sort of platform. This the eagles cover with sticks, and
here they make their house, living in it always, and not only when they
lay eggs or have young ones.
If there are eaglets in the nest, the food is at once carried home to
them, and the skinning and eating done at home. Eagles are very
attentive to their young, and feed them with great care until they are
able to take care of themselves.
[Illustration]
ZEBRA AND YOUNG.
Mrs. Zebra, standing with her baby by her side, asks proudly of the
lookers-on, "Did you ever see such a likeness?" and certainly mother and
child are very much alike, striped all over their bodies, from head to
foot, and from nose to tail, with the same regular marks of black.
Strong and wild by nature, the zebra family are left very much to
themselves, which is a source of great happiness to the mother and child
in the picture before us. "No! no! my baby is not going to become as
tame as the donkey, or to draw carts and carriages like the horse; it is
to have its freedom, and go just where it likes all over these large
plains;"--so says Mrs. Zebra, and she means it too, for if anybody took
the trouble to go all the way to the hot country of Africa, where Mrs.
Zebra is at home, and tried to carry off her baby, they would find their
journey a vain one, and that she would kick severely, and perhaps break
the legs of the person bold enough to take away her darling.
[Illustration]
MRS. BRUIN AND FAMILY.
This is the American black bear, who is looking so lively and seemingly
inviting the young folks to have a romp, which they will be only too
willing to join in. The black bear is of a timid disposition, and seldom
attacks man except in self-defense. The female bear is a most
affectionate mother, and many stories are related showing her care and
love for her young, and her sorrow and mournful cries when any evil
befalls them. On one occasion a black bear with her two cubs was pursued
across the ice by some armed sailors. At first she urged her cubs to
increased speed, but finding her pursuers gaining upon them, she
carried, pushed, and pitched them, alternately, forward, until she
effected their escape from her pursuers.
[Illustration]
LITTLE OWLS.
Who has not at one time or other of his life read fairy tales and
sympathized with stories of enchanted princes and princesses? I once
thought of this when a country boy offered me a nest with four of the
young of the Little Owl. I put them into a large cage, where they could
stare at each other and at my pigeons to their hearts' content.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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