88 The Wilderness Hunter 



ferret, which had throttled it and was sucking its 

 blood with hideous greediness. He avenged the 

 murdered innocent by a dexterous blow with the 

 knotted end of his lariat. 



That mighty bird of rapine, the war eagle, which 

 on the great plains and among the Rockies supplants 

 the bald-headed eagle of better- watered regions, is 

 another dangerous foe of the young antelope. It 

 is even said that under exceptional circumstances 

 eagles will assail a full-grown prong-horn; and a 

 neighboring ranchman informs me that he was once 

 an eye-witness to such an attack. It was a bleak 

 day in the late winter, and he was riding home 

 across a wide dreary plateau, when he saw two 

 eagles worrying and pouncing on a prong-buck 

 seemingly a yearling. It made a gallant fight. The 

 eagles hovered over it with spread wings, now and 

 then swooping down, their talons out-thrust, to strike 

 at the head, or to try to settle on the loins. The 

 antelope reared and struck with hoofs and horns 

 like a goat ; but its strength was failing rapidly, and 

 doubtless it would have succumbed in the end had 

 not the approach of the ranchman driven off the 

 marauders. 



I have likewise heard stories of eagles attacking 

 badgers, foxes, bob-cats, and coyotes; but I am 

 inclined to think all such cases exceptional. I have 

 never myself seen an eagle assail anything bigger 

 than a fawn, lamb, kid, or jack-rabbit. It also 



