306 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



wings, and, throwing back his magnificent head, looked 

 round at the ravens, as if wondering at their impudence in 

 approaching his breakfast; they kept a respectful silence, 

 and hopped further away. The royal bird then turned his 

 head in my direction, his bright eye that instant catching 

 mine, as it glanced along the barrel of my gun. He rose, I 

 drew the trigger, and he fell quite dead six yards from the 

 sheep. As one eagle is always followed by a second, I 

 remained quiet, in hopes that his mate was not within 

 hearing of my shot. I had not waited many minutes when 

 I saw the other eagle skimming low over the brow of the 

 hill towards me. She did not alight at once, but her eye 

 catching the dead body of her mate, she wheeled up into 

 the air. I thought she was lost to me, when presently I 

 heard her wings brush close over my head, and she wheeled 

 round and round the dead bird, turning her head downwards 

 to make out what had happened. At times she stooped so 

 low that I could see the sparkle of her eye, and hear her 

 low, complaining cry. I watched the time when she turned 

 up her wing towards me, and dropped her actually on the 

 body of the other. She rose to her feet, and stood gazing 

 at me with a reproachful look, and would have done battle, 

 but death was busy with her, and as I was loading in haste 

 she reeled, and fell perfectly dead." 



The The white-headed or bald eagle, is a native of 



White-Headed North America, and feeds equally on the produce 

 ag e * of the sea and of the land, but is particularly fond 

 of fish. " In procuring these, " says Wilson, "he displays in a very 

 singular manner the genius and energy of his character, which 

 is fierce, contemplative, daring and tyrannical, attributes not 

 exerted but on particular occasions, but when put forth overwhelm- 

 ing all opposition." " Elevated," says Wilson, in his " American 

 Ornithology," "on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree, 

 that commands a high view of the neighbouring shore and 

 ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the 



