130 NATURE STUDY. 



portrait has been admirably painted by Wilson. lyook on 

 this picture : — 



' Elevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree, that com- 

 mands a wide view of the neighboring shore 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 tringse coursing along the 

 sands ; trains of dvicks streaming over the surface ; silent and watch- 

 ful 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 attention. By his wide curvature of wing and sudden 

 suspension in the 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, on the 

 branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow from heav- 

 en, descends the distant object of his attention, the roar of its 

 wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making the 

 surges foam around. At this moment the eager looks of the eagle 

 are all ardor, and, leveling his neck for flight, he sees the fish, 

 hawk once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting 

 in the air with screams of exultation. These are the signal for our 

 hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, soon gains 

 on the fish-hawk ; each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, 

 displaying in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime aerial 

 evolutions. The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just 

 on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, 

 probably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish. 

 The eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more cer- 

 tain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere 

 it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to 

 the woods. ' 



"This is very beautiful and very poetical, and, what is 

 more, very true. But there are two sides to a question, as 

 there were to the shield about which the two silly knights 

 fought. Turn we now to honest, homely Benjamin Frank- 

 lin's view of the case." 



The letter from which Mr. Broderip here quotes was 



