Turning to birds, we meet with instances not less interesting, whilst very much less painful, since here the victimised species is only robbed by the other, and not so frequently as to prevent its making a living. The osprey, for instance, which preys almost exclusively on fish, which it hooks with its claws out of the water, is forced, though itself a large bird, to give up much of its booty to the still more powerful white-headed eagle. The latter sits on some rocky crag or peak “that beetles o’er its base into the sea,” and watches with a greedy eye the “inferior fiend,” as, far below, it hovers on broad wings above its destined prey. At once the wings are closed, and the spray dashes over them as the bird precipitates itself upon a gleaming light amidst the waves. For a moment it is almost hidden in the foam and swirl, the next it emerges out of it, and mounts with powerful beats into the air, its head stretched shorewards, and its bent claws struck deep into the body of a large fish, beneath the weight of which it labours. Slowly at first, but gaining strength and speed as it ascends, it heads towards the cliff’s face. Already it can see the crag on which its eyrie hangs, when, like a thunderbolt, and with the shriek or laugh of a demon, the lonely watcher, who has marked it all, hurls itself downwards on spoiler and spoil. With a quick turn the startled bird avoids the furious rush, but almost at the same moment another maniac laugh, answering the first, drowns its own note of anger and despair, as the mate of the eagle that has commenced the attack swoops towards it from a neighbouring pinnacle. All striving now on the osprey’s part is in vain. Like storm-clouds the two strong robbers gather above him and descend like the jagged lightning out of them. Their screams sound almost in his ears, their claws have cut his feathers, when his own reluctantly relax their grip, and the glittering booty falls. Something falls with it—over it. There is a rushing wind of wings, an overshadowing darkness in the air, the trail of light is checked in its descent, and out of that whirlwind of excessive speed an eagle soars serenely to the sky bearing a fish in its claws. In their eyrie, or on a ledge of the precipice, the pair of imperial brigands share their meal, or distribute it to their eaglets. The osprey tries again, and may, perhaps, catch another fish before they have finished. [Illustration: HIGHWAY ROBBERY. The osprey rose with its prey when the eagle swooped, but by swerving, the osprey momentarily escaped. The eagle is shewn stopping himself against the wind, to swoop again with fiendish cries until the osprey drops his prey in terror.]