106 THE EAGLE. 



it sees one, it falls gradually in a circuitous, spiral manner, as 

 if with an intention of checking any retreating movement of 

 its prey. When within a few yards, however it darts down 

 like a shot, and seldom misses its object. An anecdote is 

 related by Dr. Kichardson,* who accompanied that enterprising 

 traveller, Sir John Franklin, as current on the plains of 

 Saskatchewan in North America, of a half-bred Indian, who 

 was vaunting his prowess before a band of his countrymen, 

 and wishing to impress them with a belief of his supernatural 

 power. In the midst of his harangue, an Eagle was observed 

 suspended, as it were in the air, directly over his head ; upon 

 which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which glistened brightly 

 in the sun, he called upon the royal bird to come down. To 

 his own amazement, no less than to the consternation of the 

 surrounding Indians, the Eagle seemed to obey the charm, for 

 instantly shooting down with the velocity of an arrow, it 

 impaled itself on the point of his weapon. 



Eierce and savage as these birds usually are, they notwith- 

 standing appear in some instances to lay aside these habits, 

 and manifest a kind and protecting disposition, particularly 

 towards little birds. Thus it has been observed that an 

 African Eagle, though it will suffer no bird of any size to come 

 near its haunt, will nevertheless permit small ones not only 

 to reside near it, but even to perch upon its nest without 

 offering them any violence, and still more, will protect them 

 against the attack of other rapacious birds which might be 

 disposed to devour them. The Osprey, or Fishing Eagle of 

 North America, allows the Grakle, or New England Jackdaw, 

 as it is termed, to take the same liberty, these birds building 

 their nests among the loose sticks forming the base of the 

 Eagle's nest, apparently neither dreading nor inconvenienced 

 by the bird of prey which rears its young above them, j 



However cunning and sagacious we have seen them to be 

 in their modes of providing for their own wants, and entrapping 

 other birds and animals, they are occasionally overreached by 



* Richardson's Fauna Americana. 

 f King's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 217. 



