388 LAND-BIRDS. 



gains on the Fish Hawk, each exerts his utmost to mount 

 above the other, displaying in these rencontres the most ele- 

 gant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unincumbered Eagle 

 rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his op- 

 ponent, when with a sudden scream, probably of despair and 

 honest execration, the latter drops his fish ; the Eagle, poising 

 himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends 

 like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the 

 water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the 

 woods." 



" When driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined cour- 

 age and perseverance of the Fish Hawks from their neigh- 

 borhood, and forced to hunt for himself, he retires more in- 

 land, in search of young pigs, of which he destroys great num- 

 bers. In the lower parts of Virginia and North Carolina, 

 where the inhabitants raise vast herds of those animals, com- 

 plaints of this kind are very general against him. He also 

 destroys young lambs in the early part of spring ; and will 

 sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their 

 eyes." 



" The ajipetite of the Bald Eagle, though habituated to 

 long fasting, is of the most voracious and often the most in- 

 delicate kind. Fish, when he can obtain them, are preferred 

 to all other fare. Young lambs and pigs are dainty morsels, 

 and made free with on all favorable occasions. Ducks, Geese, 

 Gulls, and other sea fowl, are also seized with a^7dity. The 

 most putrid carrion, when nothing better can be had, is ac- 

 ceptable ; and the collected groups of gormandizing Vultures, 

 on the approach of this dignified personage, instantly disperse, 

 and make way for their master, waiting his departure in sul- 

 len silence, and at a respectful distance, on the adjacent trees." 



" The flight of the Bald Eagle, when taken into consider- 

 ation with the ardor and energy of his character, is noble 

 and interesting. Sometimes the human eye can just discern 

 him, like a minute speck, moving in slow curvatures along 

 the face of the heavens, as if reconnoitring the earth at that 

 immense distance. Sometimes he glides along in a direct 

 horizontal line, at a vast height, with expanded and unmoving 



