An Eagle on the prowl for a meal spied some hair he took for a Hare and swooped down and grabbed it. Too late he found the hair was really a wild Cat. Oopsl
Look before you leap.
JBR Collection
An Eagle soaring aloft, saw beneath him what he fancied to be a fine fat Hare, sleeping on a bank in the sun; and being rather sharp-set in his appetite, he descended rapidly from his towering height, and, without performing the ceremony of making a minute examination of his intended prey, boldly darted on his victim, carrying it away triumphantly in his talons; but he had not flown to any great height before be discovered the fatal error he had committed, on feeling his throat seized by the deadly gripe, not of a Hare, but of an enraged wild Cat, the mistaken object of his rapacity; and thus he fell to the ground, and expired on the spot.
Northcote
[Note: The Northcote fable is the same fable as in the JBR Collection above. Only the illustrations and Application associated with the fable in the Northcote book are displayed here.]
Application
There is nothing looks sillier than a crafty knave, outwitted and beaten at his own game, and by his own weapons. Neither is it an object of pity, when we witness the rapacious and blood-thirsty falling into disgrace and ruin, by their own selfish and cruel machinations. J. N.
