WOES OF THE CAGED
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The fallacious reasoning contained in the observations upon eagles by the late Superintendent of the-Zoo, as cited by " A Briton in Turkey," will be clear enough to all experienced field naturalists, but lest the plausible appearance of the statement should mislead some who are anxious to come to a definite and just decision upon this question, I. hope you will be able to allow me a few words.
It seems almost incredible that a naturalist should affirm
that the eagle sits " all day long " on a lofty crag, scarcely moving but to pounce upon its prey, and at the same time eatirely to ignore those splendid manifestations of expenditure of nervous and muscular energy afforded by the wing-power of the soaring eagle, which have been a wonder to all genera- tions of mankind. Yet not a word of this appears in your correspondent's letter, nor of those hunting expeditions, singly or in pairs, practised by eagles over wide tracts of country.
' The illustration of hypothetical cages as big as cathedrals is almost amusing, and serves to show how little grasp the mind of an educated man may have upon the facts involved. It reminds me of the reply made to me by a woman with whom I remonstrated for keeping a skylark in a long low cage : " Why, that cage is seventeen and a half inches wide I " was the proud retort.
Inches and half-inches or a few hundred feet versus the empyrean am, Sir, &c., . E. ST. GEORGE BETTS. 80 Ombersley Road, Birmingham.
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