The Golden Eagle

by Robert Murphy

Tells the lifestory of a golden eagle. From its youth being taught by the parent birds how to handle itself in the air and hunt for food, to its solo wanderings, meetings with other birds, and encounters with man. I really enjoyed the descriptions of how the eagle perceived things, how it experienced flight and all the different circumstances that came upon it. The descriptions of various landscapes viewed from high above were thrilling at first, then began to pall on me, probably because I didn't recognize most of the place names and had trouble picturing it after a while. The fierce, wild eagle doesn't have many good experiences with mankind and the author seems to be making a frequent point about how people disturb or outright destroy wildlife; whenever other animals wander on the scene, the author goes into little asides explaining how poorly man has treated this one or the other. Through all her trials, the young eagle gets an injured wing, battles a weasel, runs afoul of a miner who wants to trap her in his cabin, gets shot at more than once, sees one of her parents die at the hand of man, and finally meets an unfortunate fate herself, in spite of the wariness she's built up. It's not a good ending, if you dislike seeing the animal die. I was left feeling a bit put out, I did so want to see the eagle fly farther and raise its own family...

Rating: 3/5 ........ 157 pages