Birds and all Nature, Vol. V, No. 1, January 1899

"Under the mistletoe bough."

THE EAGLE

Bird of the broad and sweeping wing,
Thy home is high in heaven,
Where wide the storms their banners fling,
And the tempest clouds are driven.

    – Percival.
THE bald eagle became the bird of our nation in the year 1873. It is at home in all parts of North America. Its nest in the top of a lofty tree is a common landmark in Maine, and on the great mountain peaks of the western states the nest is usually placed upon the rock where no man nor beast is able to climb.

The American eagle lives in America only, but an eagle living in the Old World looks very much like it. The American bird is larger than the one found in Europe. It is believed that the bird of our country sometimes visits Europe, for an eagle is seen there at times that seems to be our own bald eagle.

The birds that have beaks and claws like those of the eagle are very much like the cat family upon the ground. They are all fierce hunters and live upon weaker animals and birds. The greatest of all the cat family is the lion, the king of beasts. The greatest of the cats of the air is the eagle, and he is called the king of birds.

As the cats have claws and teeth for catching and tearing their prey so the eagles have beaks and talons which are strong and sharp. The cats come quickly upon their prey without the least noise. So do the eagles. They come down from the sky like lightning and nothing is swift enough to get away, unless it is warned of the eagle's coming.

An eagle sometimes lives to be over one hundred years old. Many years ago it was said that an eagle never dies of sickness nor of old age, but that its beak grows out of shape in its last years so that it cannot eat.

All people have admired the eagle. The Indians of America have always liked to wear the feathers of the king of birds, and in Scotland the chief was known by the feather of an eagle which he wore in his bonnet.

It often happens that a young eagle looks much larger than its father or mother. This is because the first feathers of the wings and tail are longer than the ones that grow in their place when the young eagle has once shed them. The young eagle is also darker than the old one. This is why some people have made mistakes in writing about them without knowing a young eagle from an old one.

Eagles of the same kind are not always of the same color. Some are darker than others and the markings are not alike. Some young eagles shed their downy feathers early and wear the dress of grown-up birds. Others keep some or all of their baby feathers five or six years. And there are some very old eagles still wearing some of the downy feathers of their first dresses.

Eagles kept in cages lose some of their fierce ways and change the colors of their dress. But they do not forget that they are eagles. A large cat once went under the bars of an eagle's cage to get the meat which had not been eaten by the bird. Down came the eagle, tore the cat to pieces, and ate him in a hurry.

The bald eagle is very fond of fish. I have seen him on a bright day sailing high above a lake where I was fishing. He was so slow and lazy that I did not think he was fishing too. But when he saw a fine large fish near the top of the water he came down like a flash, struck his claws into the fish, and flew away to his mate in a tree upon the land.

Sometimes the eagle gets the fish hawk to do the work for him. Waiting on the branch of some tree upon the shore he sees the fish hawk flying about over the water looking for his prey. As soon as a fish has been caught and the hawk is coming ashore to eat it, the eagle frightens the hawk so as to make him drop his fish. Then the eagle catches it again before it strikes the water.

It is because he is such a robber that some of the people of America did not like to have him chosen to be the bird of our nation. They felt that we ought to have a bird that is good towards all the other birds.

A poor family once lived for a long time by robbing an eagle. The father climbed to the nest and took away the meat which the eagle brought for its young. Every day he got food for his family from the eagle. When the young birds were almost ready to fly he cut the feathers from their wings so they could not leave the nest. Then he tied them in to make sure of his own meat every day. The young ones cried harder when tied and the old ones thought they were hungry and brought them more flesh.

When the young are old enough to fly the old eagles fly above them as if to show them how easily it is done. If the young do not try to fly when the old ones think it time, they are pushed out of the nest as if to kill them. But the young wings flutter so that the bird does not fall hard, and the old bird flies under her young one to prevent any harm.

The eye of this bird is so keen that it can see a small animal much farther than the animal can see the great bird. When out of sight in the sky the eagle can see a hare as it comes out of its hole. It comes down so fast that it sometimes catches the hare before it can get back to a safe place.

When the sky is clear the eagle flies very high, but on cloudy days he keeps nearer the ground. He likes to fly over waterfalls because fish are to be caught as they pass over the falls. At Niagara Falls eagles are often seen because animals are sometimes carried over the falls by the rushing water, and the birds can get them easily.

The eagle likes to face the sun and fly towards it as if he thought he could reach it. For a long time people wondered how he could face the sun so without being made blind. But we know now that he has a covering for his eyes that keeps them from all harm from the strong light. If you watch a chicken you may see it has two eyelids for each eye. So has the eagle. The eagle has a sort of eyebrow of feathers that may help protect his eyes from the strong light.

While the eagle is graceful in flying he is not at all so in walking. Few birds are so awkward on their feet. His great claws are made for catching his prey rather than for walking. He can tear things with them and use them in fighting, but he has not much use for them upon the ground.

When they cannot get the food that suits them best eagles will sometimes steal farm animals. Lambs, or even full-grown sheep are easily carried away. They have been known to attack children and carry them off. But they do not often do this, and they have been known to carry them a little way and then set them down again as if the load were too great or they did not wish to eat them.

A story is told of a man who lived a long time ago, and who had but one child, a little girl. He wished to adopt a poor little baby boy, but his wife did not wish to take care of the boy. He had the baby carried to the top of a tree in which was the nest of an eagle. The baby was placed in the nest so he could not fall, and the man and his wife walked under the tree. The child cried so that the lady heard him. She supposed it had been carried there by the bird. Great haste was made to get the baby down, and the lady was so pleased to think she had saved the child from being eaten by the birds that she kept the little one as her own son.

Eagles hunt in pairs. One flies about near the ground to scare the game from the bushes and trees, while the other keeps watch from above to swoop down on the first thing that comes in sight. While their young ones are in the nest the old birds are very active. They are fierce if anyone comes near the young.

Sometimes they show as much cunning in taking their prey as any of the cat family. In flying down to catch animals upon the ground they take care to fly so that their shadow will not frighten their prey. An eagle has been known to destroy an animal too large to be picked up by flying at the animal fiercely as it stood upon the edge of a steep place. The wings of the bird frightened the animal so as to drive it over the cliff to meet death upon the rocks below.

(Continued on page 36 (#pgepubid00016).)

NUTS

1. The English walnut (Inglandaceæ) has a thin shell. This nut is much esteemed and is an important article of commerce. It yields by expression a bland fixed oil, which, under the names of "walnut oil" and "nut oil," is much used by painters and is a common article of food.

2. The peanut (Arachis) is also called ground nut and earth nut. It is cultivated in all warm regions of the globe, and its usefulness is such that it is likely to extend. It was introduced from Peru into Spain, and thence into France. It succeeds in favorable situations and yields from eighty to one hundred fold. Its cultivation is so general in the eastern parts of Africa, and even in the interior, that doubts have been therefore entertained of its American origin, of which, the most eminent botanists seem to be quite satisfied. The fruit is sometimes eaten raw, but generally boiled or roasted. The importance of the plant is chiefly owing to the fixed oil contained in it, which is used for the same purposes as olive or almond oil.

3. The Brazil nut is the fruit of the Bertholletia excelsa, a large tree of the order Lecythidaceæ, found chiefly on the Orinoco. The shell is very hard, and contains a rich, oily meat in one piece like an almond. The Portuguese early carried on an extensive trade in these nuts. They are now chiefly imported from Para, and continue to form an article of great commercial importance. When fresh, they are highly esteemed for their rich flavor; but they become rancid in a short time from the great quantity of oil they contain. This has been largely extracted for use in lamps.

4. The hickory nut (Carya alba) abounds near the great lakes and in some parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The nuts are in considerable demand and are sometimes exported. The shell is thin, but hard, and the kernel sweet. The oil, which was used by the Indians as an article of food, was obtained from it by pounding and boiling.

5. The filbert is the fruit of the Corylus avellana or hazel. The kernel has a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to the palate. In England filberts are usually large hazel nuts. The American hazel nuts are of two other species.

6. The chestnut (Castanea vesca) is eaten raw, boiled, or roasted, or is ground into meal and puddings, cakes, and bread are made from it. The tree is common to Europe and America.

7. The pecan (Carya olivalformis), sometimes called the Illinois nut, a species of hickory nut. The shell is thin and the meat well flavored. The tree grows in North America, chiefly in the Mississippi valley, and in Texas, where it is one of the largest of forest trees.

8. The almond (Amygdalus) grows on a tree about twenty or thirty feet high, a native of the East and of Africa, but has now become completely wild in the whole south of Europe. It is planted for the sake of its beautiful flowers, which resemble those of the peach in form and color. The wood of the tree is hard and of a reddish color, and is used by cabinet-makers. But it is chiefly valued on account of the kernel of its fruit, well known by the name of almonds, an important article of commerce. It is mentioned in the Old Testament, and appears to have been cultivated from a very early period. It was introduced into Britain as a fruit-tree before the middle of the sixteenth century, but it is only in the most favored situations in the south of England that it ever produces good fruit. It is successfully cultivated in southern California. Almonds are either sweet or bitter. The bitter appear to be the original kind, and the sweet to be an accidental variety, perpetuated and improved by cultivation.

THE BIRTH OF ATHENA

BY EMILY C. THOMPSON

IT IS a study, interesting to some of our modern scholars, to fathom the depths of obscurity and bring up from the hidden past, from the minds of men long departed, their conceptions of the beings whom they worshiped. Still more interesting is it to surmise and conjecture the origin of these marvelous beings. Charming books have been written upon these subjects and they prove fascinating to the reader who, with vivid imagination, can follow the theories of each author and the long fantastic proofs. The gods of the Greeks, those anthropomorphic beings, throbbing with life, radiant with beauty, the ideal of all that is fair and lovely, and yet the prey of human passions and desires, are a never-ending source of delight to classical students.

All theories start from the supposition that the gods had their origin either in physical or mental phenomena. Many try to trace out the effect which the world of nature with its wonders, its beauties, and its fearful realities, has had upon the savage and primitive mind, and how from these impressions arose the main gods of the Greek religion. Of course there are scholars on the other side who will not admit that there is any physical aspect of any of the gods. So the conflict rages, exciting, even absorbing, but inconclusive. The method of proof must depend largely upon the actual remains of that civilization which are still left for us in the literature and art of that people. The Greeks had an established theogony very early, as we know by the "Theogony" of Hesiod, which still remains. In this the parents of the gods were traced far back, to Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky, who themselves were sprung from Chaos. A minute relationship was figured out between all their deities which is to us almost too perplexing to follow. Many names in this theogony are names taken from nature, as those above, and so the scholars get a basis for their investigations.

Athena was one of the principal goddesses of this race, the virgin goddess of wisdom and of the arts of life, especially honored at Athens, the seat of ancient culture. Could any goddess seem farther removed from anything physical or material? – and yet we find many theories from competent, earnest scholars, brought forward to prove that such a relationship did exist. The birth of this goddess as recorded by the ancient writers was peculiar. At a blow given by Hephæstus (Vulcan) or Prometheus, she sprang from the head of Zeus, the great god of Olympus, clad in her armor, full-grown, and perfect.

A few quotations will tell us the story and show us all upon which the scholars have to base their theories about the origin of the goddess and her nature.

Homer presents Athena to us as the daughter of Zeus, and of Zeus alone, but he does not tell anything about her birth. She seems to be the spoilt darling of her father, or as one German writer calls her, sein anderes Ich. She wears the ægis of her father and sometimes all his armor, as she takes an active part in the battles, aiding her beloved Achæans.

Hesiod, Theogony, 886-900; 924-926.

"Zeus, the king of the gods, made Metis first his bride – Metis, most knowing of gods and of mortal men. But when she was about to bear the glancing-eyed goddess Athena, then deceiving her mind by craft, by winning words, he swallowed her, by the shrewdness of Gaia and starry Uranus, for thus they advised him, that no other of the ever-living gods might gain kingly honor in place of Zeus. For from her it was decreed that there should spring clever children; first the glancing-eyed maiden, Tritogenia (Athena), having equal strength with her father and wise counsel; but that then she would bear a son, king of gods and men, with overbearing heart. But first Zeus swallowed her, since the goddess purposed both good and evil for him… So he himself bore from his head the glancing-eyed Athena, terrible, strife-stirring, leader of the host, the unwearied, revered one, whom the din of battle, wars, and combat delights."

Pindar, Olympian VII, 33-38.

"Then the golden-haired one (Apollo) spoke from the fragrant shrine of the temple, spoke of the voyage from the Lernæan shores straight to the sea-girt island where the king of the gods, the great one, moistened the city with golden snowflakes, when by the arts of Hephæstus, by his brazen ax, Athena springing down the crest of her father's head, uttered the war cry with a mighty shout, and Heaven and Mother Earth shuddered before her."

Homeric Hymn to Athena XXVIII.

"Of Pallas Athena, honored goddess, I begin to sing, with glancing eyes, of many counsels and kindly heart, revered maiden, savior of cities, valiant, Tritogenia, whom Zeus himself bore from his sacred head, clad in her arms of war, golden, all-radiant. Wonder held all the immortals as they looked upon her. She quickly sprang before ægis-bearing Zeus from his immortal head shaking her sharp spear. And great Olympus trembled terribly beneath the weight of the glancing-eyed one, and the earth about resounded fearfully, and the sea was moved, agitated with its purple waves, and the salt water was poured forth on a sudden. The glorious son of Hyperion (the sun) stopped his swift-footed steeds for a long time until the maiden Pallas Athena took her arms from her immortal shoulders and all-wise Zeus rejoiced.