14 



TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second 

 victim has escaped him. He now sails at a short height 

 above the surface, and by a zig-zag descent, and with- 

 out seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, 

 which, after carrying a short distance, he probably drops, 

 or yields up to the Bald Eagle, and again ascends by easy 

 spiral circles to the higher regions of the air, where he 

 glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. 

 At once, from this sublime aerial height, he descends like 

 a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud, 

 rushing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few 

 moments he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling 

 prey, which he always carries head foremost, and, having 

 risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a 

 water-spaniel would do, and directs his heavy, laborious 

 course directly for the land." 



It will eat nothing but live fish, and will not, it is said, 

 pick up one that is accidentally dropped from its talons. 

 All of our hawks and owls have a well- 

 developed seizing, or raptorial foot (see 

 cut No. 8), which is also adapted for 

 perching, and to work with it there is a 

 strong hooked beak 

 (see cut No. 1), fitted 

 for tearing tough 

 skins and flesh. The 

 eye, too, as a helper 

 to beak and claws, is 

 large and sharp, and 

 can detect a moving animal suitable 

 for food at long distances. 



A number of young hawks were once 

 taken by the writer, and an attempt 

 made to tame them. They were carried from the place of 



