Eagle Eye

“ The Eagle Eye deeply felt the kindness of his Highland father and brother; but, whether in happiness or in pain, in joy or in grief, his lofty countenance never betrayed those feelings which are so readily yielded to in civilized life. It was in vain that they tried to induce him to adopt European habits, or to domesticate him so far [295] as to make him regularly participate in those comforts, which are the fruits of civilization. ”

“ If the light is too bright or the bird wishes to look toward the sun, it has merely to draw over the eye this third eyelid, this eye-shade, through the semi-transparency of which the rays of light enter the pupil in a much subdued intensity. There you have the whole secret of the eagle’s bold look in facing the sun. ”

“ No one, not even a king of all the birds, feels comfortable under the imminent possibility of losing an eye—and such a haughty, wonderful eye, too. Nor did the eagle. And he showed it. One presumes he might have abolished the pair—one or both—but the eagle never let on what he presumed. ”

“ The eye of the soaring eagle may not discover their charms—as did the bird of Jove those of the lovely Leda—but no human eye could gaze for a moment on either one, without receiving the impression that it was looking upon the fairest object on earth. ”

“ One night the clouds hung low in the sky.
"There will be snow before morning," said Eagle Eye.
Then the great chief hauled his canoe up the river bank. He made a shelter with branches of trees. Here he slept through the night.
In the morning, the ground was covered with snow.
"The Great Spirit is kind," said Eagle Eye. "Now I shall see the footprints of some of the animals, and I can follow them."
Soon he found the footprints of deer that had been to the river to drink. Eagle Eye followed the footprints for many miles. At last he found where the animals lived. ”

“ Still as everything is to the eye, sometimes for a hundred miles together along these deep sea-valleys, there is rarely silence. The ear is kept awake by a thousand voices. In the summer, there are cataracts leaping from ledge to ledge of the rocks; and there is the bleating of the kids that browse there, and the flap of the great eagle’s wings, as it dashes abroad from its eyrie, and the cries of whole clouds of sea-birds which inhabit the islets; and all these sounds are mingled and multiplied by the strong echoes, till they become a din as loud as that of a city. ”

“ The fable of the Eagle soaring to a great height in order to enjoy a gaze at the sun in his unclouded brilliancy, is founded probably on a belief of the ancients, thus stated by the naturalist Pliny:—'Before its young are as yet fledged, the Eagle compels them to gaze at the rays of the sun, and if it observes one to wink or show a watery eye casts it from the nest as a degenerate offspring ”

“ Handing out a few loose golden breast-feathers, at moulting time;
Or a sort of prosperity-gander
Fathering endless ten-dollar golden eggs.
Or whether it actually is an eagle you are,
With a Roman nose
And claws not made to shake hands with,
And a Me-Almighty eye.
The new Proud Republic
Based on the mystery of pride.
Overweening men, full of power of life, commanding a teeming obedience.{207}
Eagle of the Rockies, bird of men that are masters,
Lifting the rabbit-blood of the myriads up into something splendid,
Leaving a few bones ”

“ But now note farther: there is a mathematical power in the eye which may far transcend its moral power. When the moral power is feeble, the faculty of measurement, or of distinct delineation, may be supreme; and of comprehension none. But here, again, I want the help of the physical science schools. I believe the eagle has no scent, and hunts by sight, yet flies higher than any other bird. Now, I want to know what the appearance is to an eagle, two thousand feet up, of a sparrow in a hedge, or of a partridge in a stubble-field. ”

“ I grant you that the idea was born in greed. The eye of the vultures have dwelt upon the gold in the river, these fifty years. But even the vulture must give way to the Eagle. I have seen the wing of the Eagle spread, and its shadow has touched our dam in Black Canyon. Gentlemen, the vulture has come to make terms with the Eagle. ”

“ Or shall we deny that there has been any purpose or design in the fashioning of these different kinds of eyes, and see nothing to make us believe that any living being made the eagle's eye out of something which was not an eye nor anything like one, or that this living being implanted this particular eye of all others in the eagle's head, as being most in accordance with the habits of the creature, and as therefore most likely to enable it to live contentedly and leave plenitude of offspring? ”

“ The eyes of eagles are celebrated for their brilliancy and strength, which has given rise to the popular opinion that they can gaze on the sun without shrinking: though this, from the overhanging eyebrow of the Eagle, would be an extremely difficult feat for the bird to perform. The eyes of all birds are curiously constructed, so as to enable them to see both distant objects and near ones with equal facility; and for this purpose they are furnished with a membrane placed near the edge of the crystalline lens of the eye, by which it can be moved at pleasure. ”

“ In the first place the big sea-eagle had to be released from the turkey coop. The quartermaster called him Red Eye. And truly his eye was very red and angry all the time. And he clashed his great beak whenever anybody came near him.
"I guess you couldn't tame him in a hundred years," Russ said thoughtfully. "He can't be tamed. That is why we have an eagle for a symbol, I guess. We can't be tamed."
It was decided to let Red Eye out of the cage when the ship entered Savannah Harbor.
[108] "He's come a long way with us. He has come away down here to Georgia," said Rose thoughtfully. ”

“ A sporting friend, who was eye-witness to the fact, assures me that when out hunting among the Belfast mountains many years ago, an eagle, which from the darkness of its plumage he concluded was the golden, appeared above his hounds as they came to fault after a good chase, on the ascent to Devis, the highest of the range. ”

“ Indeed he seemed to her sometimes made differently from other people, born blind, deaf, and dumb, to the ordinary things, but to the extraordinary things, with an eye like an eagle’s. ”

“ This is a sad blow to the sweet-and-pureness of Nature. But it is the voice of the artist in contrast to the voice of the ideal turtle. It is the rudimentary American vision. The glimpsing of the king-birds in winged hostility and pride is no doubt the aboriginal Indian vision carrying over. The Eagle symbol in human consciousness. Dark, swinging wings of hawk-beaked destiny, that one cannot help but feel, beating here above the wild centre of America. You look round in vain for the 'One being Who made all things, and governs the world by His Providence'. ”

“ Where is the sooty sinner? We hear he is on the wing—but he either sees or smells us, probably both, and the horrid gurgle in his throat is choked by some cloud. Surely that was the sughing of wings! A Bird! alighting within fifty yards of us—and, from his mode of folding his wings—an Eagle! This is too much—within fifty yards of an Eagle on his own mountain-top. Is he blind? Age darkens even an Eagle's eyes—but he is not old, for his plumage is perfect—and we see the glare of his far-keekers as he turns his head over his shoulder and regards his eyrie on the cliff. ”

“ The Bald Eagle—king of the birds—will sweep in majestic curves around the turret pinnacles of the Alpine Heights or, poised on outspread wings, will survey his unassailable ancestral domain and, if in the garish light of day, the utter loneliness and wildness of the mountains oppress the imagination, the gloaming and the tender moonbeams will mellow the savage grandeur of the scene and invest it with a dreamy and mystical beauty to soften and enhance its sublimity. ”

“ The blue field and the stars are taken from the sky, and the white from the milky way which stretches like a broad scarf or baldric across the heavens. The red is from the first red streaks that in the morning flash across the eastern skies to herald the rising sun. The eagle, our national bird who supports the shield in our coat of arms, had by the old legends the power to fly full in the face of the sun, and to shield its eyes from the blaze was gifted with a third eyelid. In the talons of this lordly bird Freedom placed our chosen banner. ”

“ Whenever the youth, with his worn-out wings, faltered, the wife bore him up, until, growing weary in a moment of remembrance of his faithlessness, she caught in her talons the Eagle dress which sustained him and drew it off, bade him farewell forever, and sailed away out of sight in the sky. And the youth, with one gasp and shriek, tumbled over and over and over, fell into the very center of the town in which he had lived when he loved his Eagle, and utterly perished. ”

“ The Eagle, flapping his pinions as he shrieks from his rock when the tempest-cloud passes by, is not a more striking picture than this little bird, when, with his anxieties all centred in the cradle of his young ones, he stands in ‘his pride of place,’ on the limb of his palm, towering high above all other trees, and battling with the breeze that rocks it, and, rush after rush as the wind sweeps onward, flutters his wings with every jerk of the branches, and screams like a fury. ”

“ The Lark flew higher, indeed, than most of them, but finally he, too, was outstripped by the Eagle, who soared and soared until he was only a speck in the sky.
"The Eagle is our king! The Eagle is king of the birds!" sang all the others; but, no! Way, way above the Eagle flew another bird, so tiny that he looked like nothing but a mote, floating in the sunlight. It was the little brown bird that sings alone in the hedges, and had no name then. He had hidden himself in the Eagle's feathers and had been carried up with him until he wanted to fly on by himself. ”

“ Then in the morning came all the birds of the air and paid to him their tribute, all except the eagle: “And great is my wonder,” said he, “that the eagle is last to-day, and no tidings are there with any other bird, unless it is with the eagle.” He blew a whistle, and it was not long till he saw a black lump coming in the sky, and who was it but the eagle! He told the eagle he would remit to him the tribute of the seven years, if he could give him tidings of the three black ravens that are in the eastern world. ”

“ In the whole world no more wonderful natural scenery is to be found. And the eagle with no unusual effort could see it all in a single day, and see it with a distinctness of sight no man could equal. But keen though its eyesight was and wide though its range, the eagle in all that beautiful region would see not a single beauty. Neither in the sunrise, nor in the snowy mountains, nor in the luxuriant tropical forest, nor in the flowers, the birds, the butterflies, nor in the people and animals, nor in the cataracts and precipices would it see any beauty whatever. ”

“ The Eagle has long been regarded as the King of Birds, just as the lion is spoken of as the King of Beasts. There are some who say that he is not worthy of this honour, but certainly few of his subjects would care to fight him for the crown, for he has a remarkably strong beak, and his feet are armed with the sharpest of claws. Soaring high up in the air, he swoops down on his prey like a thunderbolt from the sky, and carries it off to his nest on some rocky cliff or steep mountain side. Small birds, rabbits, lambs, and fawns all help to fill the Eagle’s larder. ”

“ They see that all other beings live beneath them, and that they are the children of the King of Birds. A young eagle shows the spirit of a warrior while still in the nest.
“Being exposed to the inclemency of the weather the young eaglets are hardy. They are accustomed to hear the mutterings of the Thunder Bird and the sighings of the Great Mystery. Why, the little eagles cannot help being as noble as they are, because their parents selected for them so lofty and inspiring a home! ”

“ Everywhere was fire—fire which raged about the sheds, fire which licked its way along the railings of the cattlepans, which ate at the chutes and connections, fire which seethed and spit and crackled. ”

“ Its frontlet is an Eagle—the emblem of power, strength, and freedom; the Eagle’s wings are wide spread; the bird glitters with gems—oh, how they shine!—but they are above eyes that fain would weep, yet dare not; they are above a heart that must not break! ”

“ When the latter rises from the water, with a fish in its grasp, forth rushes the Eagle in pursuit. He mounts above the Fish-Hawk, and threatens it by actions well understood, when the latter, fearing perhaps that its life is in danger, drops its prey. In an instant, the Eagle, accurately estimating the rapid descent of the fish, closes his wings, follows it with the swiftness of thought, and the next moment grasps it. The prize is carried off in silence to the woods, and assists in feeding the ever-hungry brood of the Eagle. ”

“ What kind of definition on the retina do these brown spots take to manifest themselves as signs of a thing eatable; and if an eagle sees a partridge so, does it see everything else so? And then tell me, farther, does it see only a square yard at a time, and yet, as it flies, take summary of the square yards beneath it? When next you are travelling by express sixty miles an hour, past a grass bank, try to see a grasshopper, and you will get some idea of an eagle’s optical business, if it takes only the line of ground underneath it. ”

“ That bird, whose image, if not worshipped, has more adorers in this nation than the Lord of glory, for it stands alike in the gold eagle, and silver dollar, and perches as gracefully on the soldier's cap, as on the officer's hat, and appears larger upon the sign of a tavern, than upon the seal of the United States,—I mean the American Eagle is a commoner among the great ones of the west. ”