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BIRDS OF PREY OF NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 265 
dead animals. He, of all, kills his living prey. Should he drop 
a fish from his claws, his instincts are never to pick it up. His 
limbs are muscular to the extreme, scarcely covered by the short- 
est feathers, and his legs and claws immense for his size; the 
joints are co loose in their articulation as to bave a side motion, 
and the toes so adjusted that they may work in pairs, like the 
parrots, two before and two behind; the proper hind toe small, 
in this particular approaching the owl. The very peculiar scales 
they are covered with, and the roughness of the sole, still further 
recedes it from the typical foot of the falconidze. They breed in 
our forest some miles from the sea, but do not winter with us. 
He may be seen regularly hunting our estuaries and forest lakes. 
Now gracefully soaring, and now falling prone as a stone into 
the water, and then emerging with a fish in his claws, heavily 
laden and seeking the forest. I never could observe if he went 
beneath the water, as everything was covered by the splash of 
water caused by his fall. It is asserted that he does, by men of 
science and by the practical observer. It must be a very power- 
ful bird to rise loaded from beneath the wave. The rising sun 
caught me amongst the hills of St. Clements, one morning after 
along night ride. The air was filled by dismal screeches, and 
I nearly broke my back twisting in my saddle till I saw right 
over my head a fish hawk heavily laden with a fish in his claws 
and a bald headed eagle continually soaring above and pouncing 
down upon his back. In a moment the fish came diagonally: 
falling, the level beams of the early sun glinting it with silver, 
The eagle dropt like a stone beneath it, catching it on its up- 
turned claws, and flapped away, whilst the poor plundered 
hawk was heard screaming long after out of sight. The eagles 
are the last upon our list. The golden eagle (A. crysactus), 
the eagle of the ancients, the bird of Jove, remains the whole 
vear, and nests with us. They are more rare than the bald heads,. 
a pair dominating over a very wide country. I have seen four, 
three of them alive, taken in traps, the fourth killed by a 
woman in Pictou County. One in captivity was a very bold 
bird, attacking everybody that approached him with his claws. 
This attack was so fierce that a calfskin boot would have socn 
