GOLDEN EAGLE 309 



Then the one on the ledge fails to heed the call and remains until the other 

 has alighted beside it. Then off they fly together toward Blaney Meadow, 

 about five miles to the southeast of their home. 



William Brewster (1925) witnessed a thrilling swoop of a golden 

 eagle at a great blue heron : 



Drifting, presently, over the place where the Heron had settled and evidently 

 noticing the big bird for the tirst time, the Eagle checked his flight in the 

 middle of a half-completed circle to poise for an instant on rapidly-vibrating 

 wings, precisely as a Kingfisher will hover over a school of minnows. Then 

 he swooped, apparently as straight and vertically as a heavy stone may fall, 

 yet all the time revolviny like a spinning rifle bullet, if more slowly, thereby 

 showing us his (normally) upper and under parts alternately and making no 

 less than four or five such turns before passing out of sight. Never before 

 have I seen anything of the kind that seemed nearly so wonderful and im- 

 pressive. As the great bird plunged headlong, from a height of at least one 

 hundred yards, his wings, apparently set and almost clo.sed, made a sound 

 like that of a strong wind blowing through pine branches. His momentum 

 must have been tremendous as he neared the earth. How it was finally 

 checked and what else transpired behind the line of fallen trees I am, of course, 

 unable to report. Without doubt the Eagle stooped at the Heron and quite 

 as certainly failed to strike it down ; for after an outburst of loud and pro- 

 longed squawking it rose above the trees and flew off at its very best pace, 

 evidently badly frightened. Perhaps the Eagle had merely been amusing 

 himself by bullying it, a diversion to which all strong-winged birds of prey are 

 more or less inclined. 



At another time he saw a young eagle attacked by an osprey, of 

 which he writes : 



After making the fruitless attempt to capture a Duck, he was assailed by 

 an Osprey who kept darting down and striking at him from above, precisely 

 as a Kingbird attacks Crows and other large birds. Every time the Osprey 

 came within six or eight feet of him the Eagle would turn back downward 

 and thrust up both feet with their talons extended, as if hoping to clutch 

 his tormentor. This action was repeated at least half a dozen times, and 

 performed so quickly that it was difficult to follow with the eye, although for a 

 fraction of a second the upstretched legs and widespread talons showed distinctly 

 enough against the sky. 



Mr. Sumner has seen a young eagle pursued by a flock of avocets 

 and driven away, one attacked by a blackbird, and one, which was 

 standing on the ground, was attacked by a red-tailed hawk; the 

 hawk — 



which had been circling in the air, dove at him three times from a height of 

 300 to 400 feet. Each time the redtail dove the eagle jumped up from the 

 ground and flung himself, while in the air, upside down so as to oppose his 

 talons to those of the hawk. By and by the hawk stopped diving and began 

 to circle again, the eagle staying where he was, but when the eagle got ui) 

 and flew farther into the hawk's territory — flying leisurely — the redtail, 

 although quarter of a mile or so from him, flapped his wings faster than I 

 have ever seen a redtail flap, and was overhead in less than 30 seconds — like 

 an airplane overtaking a fi-eight train — and dove at him as before. 



