THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 58 
rapid and graceful, and is often prolonged for hours with 
apparent ease. It feeds upon wild-fowl, wild geese, and 
small animals, and is very partial to fish, which it robs from 
the Fish Hawk (P. Carolinensis), and finds cast upon the 
shore, dead. 
Wilson, in describing its attacks on the Fish Hawk, 
says : — 
“Formed by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding 
equally on the produce of the sea and of the land; possessing 
powers of flight capable of outstripping even the tempests them- 
selves; unawed by any thing but man; and, from the ethereal 
heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an im- 
measurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below 
him, — he appears indifferent to the little change of localities or 
seasons; as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to winter, 
from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode 
of eternal cold, and thence descend, at will, to the torrid or 
the arctic regions of the earth. He is therefore found at all 
seasons in the countries he inhabits, but prefers such places as 
have been mentioned above, from the great partiality he has for 
fish. 
“Tn procuring these, he displays, in a very singular manner, 
the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contempla- 
tive, daring, and tyrannical, — attributes not exerted but on par 
ticular occasions, but, when put forth, overpowering all opposition. 
Elevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree that com- 
mands a wide view of the neighboring shores and ocean, he seems 
calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes 
that pursue their busy avocations below, —the snow-white gulls 
slowly winnowing the air; the busy tringe coursing along the 
sands; trains of ducks streaming over the surface; silent and 
watchful cranes, intent and wading; clamorous crows; and all the 
winged multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid 
magazine of nature. High over all these hovers one whose action 
instantly arrests his whole attention. By his wide curvature of 
wing and sudden suspension in air, he knows him to be the Fish 
Hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye 
kindles at the sight ; and, balancing himself, with half-opened wings, 
