ring the
absence of the parents, which return to find a desolate and empty nest.
But it goes hard with the hunter if the keen eyes of the old birds
discover him before he has made his safe descent with his booty. Darting
at him with terrible fury, they try their utmost to throw him from the
cliff; and unless he be well armed, and use his weapons with skill and
rapidity, his position is one of the utmost peril.

The young birds are easily tamed; and the experiment has already been
tried with some success of using them as the falcon, to assist in
hunting game.

The golden eagle is an inhabitant of the Rocky Mountains, but is very
seldom seen farther eastward. Audubon reports having noticed single
pairs in the Alleghanies, in Maine, and even in the valley of the
Hudson; but such examples are very rare, for this royal bird is truly a
creature of the mountains. It fears neither cold nor tempestuous winds
nor icy solitudes.

The eagle's plume is an old and famous decoration of warriors and
chieftains, and is constantly alluded to, especially in Scottish legend
and song. The Northwestern Indians ornament their headdresses and their
weapons with the tail feathers of the eagle, and institute hunts for the
bird with the sole purpose of obtaining them. Indians prize these
feathers so highly that they will barter a valuable horse for the tail
of a single bird.

Royal and noble in its bearing, the eagle has naturally been chosen as
the symbol of majesty and power. It served as one of the imperial
emblems of ancient Rome, and is employed at the present time for the
regal insignia of different countries. The bald eagle, the national bird
of the United States, belongs to the same great family as its golden
cousin, and is a sharer of its lordly characteristics.

[Illustration: Top Border (Snowflakes)]

THE HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF THE SNOW

[Illustration: Left Side Border]

[Illustration: Right Side Border]

In the falling of the snow we have snow _showers_ and snow _storms_. In
the snow _shower_ the air is filled with light, fleecy flakes, which
descend gently and noiselessly through it, and either melt away and
disappear as fast as they alight, or else, when the temperature is below
the point of freezing, slowly accumulate upon every surface where they
can gain a lodgment, until the fields are everywhere covered with a
downy fleece of spotless purity, and every salient point--the tops of
the fences and posts, the branche