80 BIRDS OF PREY. 



though unjustly doomed to servitude, his address and 

 industry raise him greatly above his oppressor, so that 

 he supplies himself and his young with a plentiful sus- 

 tenance. His adroitness and docility in catching fish 

 have also sometimes been employed by man for his ad- 

 vantage. 



Intent on exploring the sea for his food, he leaves the 

 nest and proceeds directly to the scene of action, sail- 

 ing round in easy and wide circles, and turning at 

 times as on a pivot, apparently without exertion, while 

 his long and curving wings seem scarcely in motion. 

 At the height of from 100 to 200 feet he continues to 

 survey the bosom of the deep. Suddenly he checks his 

 course and hovers in the air, with beating pinions ; he 

 then descends with rapidity, but the wily victim has 

 escaped. Now he courses near the surface, and by a 

 dodging descent, scarcely wetting his feet, he seizes a 

 fish, which he sometimes drops or yields to the greedy 

 Eagle ; but, not discouraged, he again ascends in spiral 

 sweeps, to regain the higher regions of the air, and re- 

 new his survey of the watery expanse. His prey again 

 espied, he descends perpendicularly like a falling plum- 

 met, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing noise, 

 and with an unerring aim. In an instant he emerges 

 with the struggling prey in his talons, shakes off the wa- 

 ter from his feathers, and now directs his laborious 

 course to land, beating in the wind with all the skill of 

 a practised seaman. The fish which he thus carries 

 may be sometimes from 6 to 8 pounds ; and so firm some- 

 times is the penetrating grasp of his talons, that when, 

 by mistake, he engages with one which is too large, he is 

 dragged beneath the waves, and at length both fish and 

 bird perish. 



