HAWKS AND EAGLES. 385 



any much inhabited district ; but the immense tracts of forest, 

 and the high mountain-ranges, in their usual haunts, enable 

 them to live remote from civilization. I have occasionally seen 

 them among the White Mountains. They may sometimes be 

 observed sailing at a vast height in wide circles, but with no 

 perceptible effort. I have watched them for hours, but only 

 once have I seen them plunge. One, who had been sailing 

 for a long while at the elevation of several hmidred feet, sud- 

 denly closed his wings and dropped with astounding velocity, 

 which might well take one's breath away. In his fall he dis- 

 appeared behind some woods, and I did not see him again. 

 The keenness of vision which this species must possess is won- 

 derful, but at how great a height they can distinctly perceive 

 their prey is uncertain. I have seen one sail at some distance 

 above the peak of Mount Lafayette, at least a mile above the 

 sea level, and, on crossing a valley beneath, suddenly descend, 

 as if his attention had been attracted by an object four thou- 

 sand feet beneath. Could man from the top of a monument 

 twenty times as high as that of Bunker Hill distinctly see a 

 cat directly beneath, or a fawn at the distance of two or three 

 miles, even if not running through grass or w^oods ? Yet man 

 might distinctly see and recognize a tolerably small quadru- 

 ped at the distance of a mile in a clear, level space, — whence 

 it seems possible that the powers of horizontal and perpendic- 

 ular vision are somewhat distinct, even when the same surface 

 of a body is seen. Audubon says of these birds that " young 

 fawns, raccoons, hares, wild turkeys, and other large birds 

 are their usual food, and they devour putrid flesh only when 

 hard-pressed by hunger, none alighting on carrion at any 

 other time." 



d. The screams of the Golden Eagle are loud, harsh, and 

 rather savage, "resembling at. times," says Audubon, "the 

 barking of a dog, especially about the breeding season, when 

 they become extremely noisy and turbulent." . . . 



VIII. HALIiEETUS. 



A. LEUCOCEPHALUS. ''Bald'' Eagle. White-headed 



