--The
Dublin Express tells the following "ower true tale"
"For the last ten years William Pike,
Esq., of Glengarary, Achill, has had a golden eagle, which he got before it was fully fledged, and which is considered one of the finest specimens in the kingdom — perfect in plumage and quite tame.
It is kept in a large cage, made of wire about the thickness of sheep-fencing.--For more than a year past, two wild eagles of the same species have frequented the mountain over his house.
They have, on several occasions, alighted on the cage of the tame eagle, and also on the top of the house.
They are not in the least shy, and, as no one is permitted to molest them, they seem quite at home. --Last week one of them broke through into the cage of the tame eagle, where he remained for a few minutes, and got out again.
"On Friday, the 21st, he broke in again, when some of the workmen stopped his means of exit, which seemed to astonish him no little.
He was a splendid bird, with a spread of wing apparently over eight feet. After keeping him half an hour,
Mr. Pike opened the cage door and let him out. At first he did not fly, as he seemed out of breath with his exertions, but allowed himself to be driven for fifty yards, to a rising ground, where he took wing.
Instead, however, of flying off at once, he remained poised over the cage, but at a great height, for ten minutes. These eagles build in the cliffs of Dooega, four miles off, in the face of a precipice which is about one thousand feet high and perpendicular.
"The tame eagle seems to be the attraction; the wild ones remain in sight of it about four hours each day. They chiefly prey upon hares, which are abundant in the locality.
Their mode of pursuing them is curious.
They almost always hunt in couples, and, when once the hare is started, one poises itself in the air to mark the game, while the other twists and turns about, like a greyhound, within a few yards of the ground.
If, by any chance, the pursuer loses sight of the prey, he at once poises, and the other takes up the running, and so on until they kill."
