Eagles: Masters of the Sky

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This book could be called a celebration of or a tribute to eagles, which
is to say it is a lot of odds and ends linked together by subject.

The scope of the work is too broad; by widening the subject matter to
include eagles from around the world, there are too many species to give
adequate coverage to any. The two North American species—golden and
bald eagles—receive a slim chapter each. In the context of this book
that is generous; in the context of the available literature, it is
superficial.

The text is made up of lists and sidebars, gleanings from the
literature, poetry, retellings of the birds’ natural history, legends,
and lore. The scope is pre-history to the future, from myth to modern
environ-mental issues. The content makes entertaining brows-ing for
those with a casual interest in the subject; birders and naturalists may
find it shallow.

The more than 60 photographs and illustrations constitute an
interesting gallery of eagles as portrayed by Native cultures,
historians, and modern photographers. Many of the full-page color plates
are spectacular and capture the force and power that shape our image of
eagle.