NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 80 



glows, are now advancing; and the remembrance of a 

 promise to relate the attempt of the poor incarcerated 

 white-headed eagles to incubate rises. 



The female white-headed eagle (Haliaetos leucoce- 

 phalus) laid her first egg on the 5th of April, 1845, and 

 a second on the 8th of the same month, on a rough nest, 

 composed of litter and twigs, &c., on the floor of her 

 apartment in the eagle-hut at the Garden in the Regent's 

 Park. 



What a prison for a bird whose home is on the rock 

 that shoots up from the lake, or the cliffs which overhang 

 the mighty river or the wide sea ! Niagara is a favourite 

 resort of the white-headed, or bald eagle, — the latter 

 appellation a misnomer, for no bird has a better feathered 

 head. There it sits or soars on the watch for the fish, 

 and also for the carcases of squirrels, deer, bears, and 

 other quadrupeds, which, in their attempts to cross the 

 river above the falls, have been caught by the current 

 and dashed do\vn those awful cataracts. 



It is a very powerful bird, three feet long, and seven 

 in alar extent ; and has been seen flying off with a lamb 

 ten days old : but it let the prey fall from a height of 

 ten or twelve feet, in consequence of its struggles and 

 the shouts of the spectator, who ran with loud halloos 

 after the depredator ; the poor lamb's back, however, was 

 broken by the crushing swoop. Nay, a white-headed 

 eao"le has been known to seize and throw down an infant, 

 and drag it for a short distance, when the cries of the 

 mother, who had set down the little innocent to amuse 

 itself while she weeded her garden, and the giving way 

 of the child's dress, a portion of which the eagle bore off, 

 saved its life. Thus was a second scene of the ' Bird and 

 Bantling' happily cut short. 



It "will also attack old and sickly sheep, aiming furi- 

 ously at their eyes. 



In short, he is a most determined brigand, whose por- 



