He can at pleasure stint their melody.”
Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Sc. 4.
LONGEVITY OF THE EAGLE.
The great age to which this bird sometimes attains has been remarked by most writers on Ornithology. The Psalmist has beautifully alluded to it where he says of the righteous man,—“His youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s.” A golden eagle, which had been nine years in the possession of Mr. Owen Holland, of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the gentleman who made him a
present of it, but what its age was when the latter received it from Ireland is unknown.[31] Another, that died at Vienna, was stated to have lived in confinement one hundred and four years.[32] A white-tailed eagle captured in Caithness, died at Duff House in February, 1862, having been kept in confinement, by the late Earl of Fife, for thirty-two years. But even the eagle may be outlived. Apemantus asks of Timon:—
“Will these moss’d trees,
That have outliv’d the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point’st out?”
Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3.
The old text has “moyst trees.” The emendation, however, which was made by Hanmer, is strengthened by the line in As You Like It (Act iv. Sc. 3):—