76 BIRDS OF PREY. 



An attempt of this kind, according to Wilson, was made 

 upon a child lying by its mother as she was weeding a 

 garden at Great Egg-Harbour in New Jersey ; but the 

 garment seized upon by the Eagle giving way at the 

 instant of the attempt, the life of the child was spared. 

 I have heard of another instance said to have happened 

 at Petersburgh in Georgia, near the Savannah river, 

 where an infant, sleeping in the shade near the house, 

 was seized and carried to the eyry near the edge of a 

 swamp 5 miles distant, and when found, almost imme- 

 diately, the child was dead. The story of the Eagle and 

 child, in "The history of the house of Stanley,'' now the 

 crest of that family, shows the credibility of the exploit, 

 as supposed to have been effected by the White-tailed 

 Eagle, so nearly related to the present. Indeed, about 

 the year 1745, some Scotch reapers, accompanied by the 

 wife of one of them with an infant, repaired to an island 

 in Loch Lomond ; the mother laid down her child in the 

 shade at no great distance from her, and while she was bu- 

 sily engaged in labor, an Eagle of this kind suddenly'darted 

 upon the infant, and immediately bore it away to its rocky 

 eyry on the summit of Ben Lomond. The alarm of this 

 shocking event was soon spread ; and a considerable 

 party, hurrying to the rescue, fortunately succeeded in 

 recovering the child alive. 



The Bald Eagle, like most of the large species, takes 

 wide circuits in its flight and soars at great heights. 

 In these sublime attitudes he may often be seen hovering 

 over water-falls and lofty cataracts, particularly that of 

 the famous Niagara, where he watches for the fate of 

 those unfortunate fish and other animals that are destroy- 

 ed in the descent of the tumultuous waters. 



In the adult, at the age of 3 years, all the plumage of the body 

 and of the wings is of a deep and very lively brown or chocolate 



