56 HALIAETUS ALBICILLA. 



courage and daring be considered essential to the pre- 

 eminence designated by that term, it has little claim 

 to the title. Its character is a compound of those of 

 the vultures, the hawks, the raven, and the larger gulls, 

 Its principal nutriment is derived not so much from the 

 produce of its own industry as from carrion of all kinds ; 

 and it is frequently seen sweeping along the sides of 

 mountains and hovering over the shores, in search of 

 dead sheep, fish, young birds, and such animals gene- 

 rally as are large enough to furnish a meal, weak 

 enough to make no formidable opposition, or so heavy 

 as to be incapable of very rapid or j)rotracted flight. 

 It sometimes carries off poultry that have straggled to 

 a distance from the house, clutches up young lambs, 

 and when hard pressed by hunger is said to attack 

 sheep and even deer ; but a fox, an otter, or a seal, it 

 scarcely ever ventures to molest, and a man may car- 

 ry off its young before its face with little danger of a 

 scratch. 



When standing, its postures are by no means grace- 

 ful ; but the keenness of its bright and fierce eye en- 

 livens its appearance, and under excitement it throws 

 itself into beautiful and picturesque attitudes, drawing 

 back its head, and erecting the narrow and pointed fea- 

 thers of the neck. With its body inclined, its neck 

 drawn in, its large heavy wings drooping by its side, 

 it reminds us, when in a state of repose, of the vultures, 

 with which it was in fact associated by Linnaeus ; and 

 it may sometimes be seen on the pinnacle of a rock, 

 with its wings spread out to the sun, somewhat in the 

 manner of those carrion birds, to which it is allied in 

 its habits as Avell as in its postures. But this hanging 



