BALD EAGLE— WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 83 



country, but throughout this region it is by no means an abundant 

 bird. From Lake Ontario it is more or less abundant along the 

 the valley of the St. Lawrence outward to the Gulf, where we 

 have already noticed its occurrence. 



The Bald Eagle feeds largely upon fish — a fact recorded by 

 every writer — which it obtains partly by plundering the Fish 

 Hawk, but not to the extent generally supposed. It undoubtedly 

 fishes for itself — when hungry and not too lazy — for I have 

 repeatedly seen it plunge after its finny prey in precisely the same 

 manner as the Fish Hawk. On one occasion, on Mud Lake, near 

 the village of Newborough, on the Rideau, a Bald Eagle descended 

 with terrible velocity and struck the water within half gun-range 

 of our canoe with a tremendous splash and noise. The bird dis- 

 appeared entirely from view for the space of two or three seconds, 

 when he again reappeared with great floundering, and extracted 

 himself from the water with apparent difficulty. In his talons was 

 a large fish, I thought a sucker, which was grasped close by the 

 head. In his upward flight the Eagle several times checked 

 himself, to shake out his ruffled feathers and remove the water, 

 and then, with rather labored flight, betook himself to a tree in a 

 tract of drowned wood-land close by. On another occasion we 

 witnessed two of these birds fishing, or taking turns at fishing, at 

 the foot of the High Falls, Calabogie Lake, and observed them 

 carrying their victims oft" in the direction of Dixon's Mountain — - 

 the local name for a high bluff of red gneiss rock, which skirts 

 the western side of this lake. Several times we have witnessed 

 and verified for ourselves the pursuit, capture, and plundering of 

 the Fish Hawk by the Bald Eagle ; but so has everyone who 

 has journeyed by our " forest and stream " in Canada. One 

 instance of this in particular may be recorded. Two large Eagles 

 of this species together gave chase to a female Osprej' or P'ish 

 Hawk, which but a moment before had succeeded in capturing a 

 good sized lake trout. On first hearing the shrill screams of its 

 pursuers, the poor bird made desperate efforts by straight flight 

 to reach the drowned wood-lands in which its nest and young 

 were located ; but lone before it reached these its course was inter- 



