330 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



an osprey and, looking up, saw a bald eagle chasing the bird. The 

 eagle flew over it making several quick dives, which were easily 

 dodged by the osprey. But before we realized it, the eagle made one 

 quick dive, turning upside down with talons outstretched, and took 

 the fish from the grasp of the osprey. The eagle sailed away with 

 the spoils, as if nothing had occurred. The osprey turned silently, 

 with no pretense of fight, and flew down the river." 



But where there are no ospreys to rob the eagle has to do its own 

 fishing. Dr. Oberholser (1906) writes: 



Sometimes from its percli on the summit of a dead tree it launches down- 

 ward and, falling like a stone, seizes its prey ; sometimes it hunts on the wing, 

 much like an osprey, and when a fish is perceived poises by rapid wing-beats, 

 finally dropping into the water even from a great height, and not infrequently 

 becoming almost completely submerged; then, again, it varies this last method 

 by fiying leisurely along near the surface of the water. Audubon mentions 

 that along Perkiomen Creek near Philadelphia, Pa., he saw it on several oc- 

 casions wading in the shallows and striking at the small fish with its bill; and 

 other observers elsewhere have noted a similar habit. It has been seen scram- 

 bling over the ice of a pond, trying to reach the fish below ; and Mr. W. L. 

 Dawson, in his "Birds of Ohio", says that at the Licking Reservoir, Ohio, it is 

 reported in winter to watch near the air holes in the ice for the fish that come 

 from time to time to seek the surface. Mr. J. G. Cooper has seen it catch a 

 fiying fish in the air, and the amazing celerity necessary for the performance 

 of such an exploit may readily be imagined. 



Again he writes: 



The bald eagle does not disdain carrion, and in some parts of the arid West 

 it lives at times to a considerable extent on the cattle and smaller domestic 

 animals that fall victims to drought or other catastrophe. * * * Wilson tells 

 that on one occasion when many thousands of tree squirrels were drowned in 

 attempting to cross the Ohio River not far from Wheeling, W. Va., and a great 

 number drifted to the shore, a bald eagle for several successive days regaled 

 itself on them. Carrion was found in the stomachs of two eagles examined by 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher. Mr. Horace A. Kline has seen this bird along the Wakulla 

 River in Florida feeding on the carcass of an ox, again that of a sheep. * * * 

 Sometimes it drives away the gathered vultures or dogs from their repast and 

 keeps them at a respectful distance until its hunger is satisfied. Furthermore 

 it does not hesitate even to pursue the vultures and compel them to disgorge, 

 when if it fail to catch the coveted morsels before they reach the ground it 

 alights and devours them. Audubon relates that on one occasion he saw it 

 kill a vulture that for some reason was unable completely to disgorge. 



Stories of eagles carrying off babies or small cliildren are probably 

 greatly exaggerated or imaginary, but Wilson (1832) relates the fol- 

 lowing: "A woman, who happened to be weeding in the garden, had 

 set her cliilcl down near, to amuse itself while she was at work; when 

 a sudden and extraordinary rushing sound, and a scream from her 

 child, alarmed her, and starting up, she beheld the infant thrown 

 down, and dragged some feet, and a large Bald Eagle bearing off a 

 fragment of its frock, which being the only part seized, and giving 

 way, providentially saved the life of the infant." 



