EAGLE'S CHALLENGE TO AIRMAN

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14257, 7 January 1920, Page 7

EAGLE'S CHALLENGE TO AIRMAN

PYRENEES ADVENTURE. A thousand feet above the blue crags and chasms of the Pyrenees a British airman has discovered a sport, beside which, he says, the thrills and dangers of tiger shooting are but a commonplace. Flying recently from Paris to Madrid the airman, piloting a single-seater scout machine, found himself over the Pyrenees in the half-light of early dawn. He was flying probably at 100 miles an hour when a big eagle, roused from its haunt by the distant drumming of the engine, soared to meet him. "It was as if the eagle had thrown me a challenge," says the airman, '' but the laughter died on my lips when I thought that perchance a lucky dive by the bird, or, may be, a collision in mid-air, would send me crashing to the rocks beneath. '•'The eagle lumbered at me at about 00 miles an hour, and I throttled down to the same pace while we took stock of each other. The air by then was crystal clear, and I could see every feather on him as we circled round, for all the world like two antagonists above the western front. "Whether he wanted to get above me for a dive, or whether he took me for a bird of his own fighting instincts, and was afraid of my getting above him and dropping on him, I know not, but it was in his eye to climb—and climb he did. "Up and up we went, the bird a few yards from my wing tip, climbing yard by yard with me. And then, unable to resist it any longer, I opened the throttle, pvit my nose down, and looped right over him. He made one great effort to catch up, and with it his strength failed. His wings gave a feeble beat, and with every appearance of a shot plane he nose-dived to earth. 1 followed him down a good 1200 feet, and saw him flatten out and land near a village in the foothills, completely exhausted.'-'