24 BIRDS OF PREY. 



The principal food of the Bald Eagle is fish ; and though he 

 possesses every requisite of alertness and keenness of vision 

 for securing his prey, it is seldom that he obtains it by any 

 other means than stratagem and rapine. For this habitual 

 daring purpose he is often seen perching upon the naked 

 limb of some lofty tree which commands an extensive view of 

 the ocean. In this attitude of expectation he heedlessly sur- 

 veys the active employment of the feathered throng, which 

 course along the wavy strand, or explore the watery deep with 

 beating wing, until from afar he attentively scans the motions 

 of his provider, the ample-winged and hovering Osprey. At 

 length the watery prey is espied, and the feathered fisher de- 

 scends like a falling rock ; cleaving the wave, he now bears his 

 struggling victim from the deep, and mounting in the air, 

 utters an exulting scream. At this signal the Eagle pirate 

 gives chase to the fortunate fisher, and soaring above him, by 

 threatening attitudes obliges him to relinquish his prey; the 

 Eagle, now poising for a surer aim, descends like an arrow, 

 and snatching his booty before it arrives at the water, retires 

 to the woods to consume it at leisure. These perpetual dep- 

 redations on the industrious Osprey sometimes arouse him to 

 seek for vengeance, and several occasionally unite to banish 

 their tyrannical invader. When greatly pressed by hunger, the 

 Bald Eagle has sometimes been observed to attack the Vul- 

 ture in the air, obliging him to disgorge the carrion in his 

 craw, which he snatches up before it reaches the ground. He 

 is sometimes seen also to drive away the Vultures, and feed 

 voraciously on their carrion. Besides fish, he preys upon 

 Ducks, Geese, Gulls, and other sea-fowl ; and when the re- 

 sources of the ocean diminish, or fail from any cause, par- 

 ticularly on the southern migration of the Osprey, his inland 

 depredations are soon notorious, young lambs, pigs, fawns, and 

 even deer often becoming his prey. So indiscriminate in- 

 deed is the fierce appetite of this bold bird that instances are 

 credibly related of their carrying away infants. An attempt of 

 this kind, according to Wilson, was made upon a child lying 

 by its mother as she was weeding a garden at Great Egg- 



