362 E A G 



have reached me from various persons of respect- 

 ability, living on or near our sea coast. The substance 

 of all these I shall endeavour to incorporate with the 

 present account. 



" Mr. John L. Gardiner, who resides on an island 

 of three thousand acres, about three miles from the 

 eastern point of Long Island, from which it is sepa- 

 rated by Gardiner's Bay, and who has consequently 

 many opportunities of observing the habits of these 

 birds, has favoured me with a number of interesting 

 particulars on this subject, for which I beg leave 

 thus publicly to return my grateful acknowledgment. 



"'The bald eagles,' says this gentleman, 'remain 

 on this island during the whole winter. They can be 

 most easily discovered on evenings by their loud 

 snoring while asleep on high oak trees ; and, when 

 awake, their hearing seems to be nearly as good as 

 their sight. I think I mentioned to you, that I had 

 myself seen one flying with a lamb ten days old, and 

 which it dropped on the ground from about ten or 

 twelve feet high. The struggling of the lamb, more 

 than its weight, prevented its carrying it away. My 

 running, hallooing, and being very near, might pre- 

 vent its completing its design. It had broke the back 

 in the act of seizing it ; and I was under the neces- 

 sity of killing it outright to prevent its misery. The 

 lamb's dam seemed astonished to see its innocent off- 

 spring borne off into the air by a bird. 



" ' I was lately told,' continues Mr. Gardiner, ' by a 

 man of truth, that he saw an eagle rob a hawk of its 

 fish, and the hawk seemed so enraged as to fly down 

 at the eagle, while the eagle very deliberately in the 

 air, threw himself partly over on his back, and, while 

 he grasped with one foot the fish, extended the other 

 to threaten or seize the hawk. I have known several 

 hawks unite to attack the eagle, but never knew a 

 single one to do it. The eagle seems to regard the 

 hawks as the hawks do the king-birds, only as teasing 

 troublesome fellows.' 



" From the same intelligent and obliging friend, I 

 lately received a well-preserved skin of the bald eagle, 

 which, from its appearance, and the note that accom- 

 panied it, seems to have belonged to a very formid- 

 able individual. ' It was shot,' says Mr. Gardiner, 

 ' last winter, on this island, and weighed thirteen 

 pounds, measured three feet in length, and seven from 

 tip to tip of the expanded wings ; was extremely 

 fierce looking ; though wounded, would turn his back 

 to no one ; fastened his claws into the head of a dog, 

 and was with difficulty disengaged. I have rode on 

 horseback within five or six rods of one, who, by his 

 bold demeanour, raising his feathers, &c., seemed wil- 

 ling to dispute the ground with its owner. The crop 

 of the present was full of mutton, from my part blood 

 Merinos ; and his intestines contained feathers, which 

 he probably devoured with a duck or winter gull, as 

 I observed an entire foot and leg of some water fowl. 

 I had two killed previous to this, which weighed ten 

 pounds avoirdupois each.' 



" The intrepidity of character, mentioned above, 

 may be farther illustrated by the following fact, which 

 occurred a few years ago near Great Egg Harbour, 

 New Jersey. A woman, who happened to be weed- 

 ing in the "garden, had set her child down near, to 

 amuse itself, while she was at work ; when a sudden 

 scream from the child alarmed her, and, starting up, 

 she beheld the infant thrown down, and dragged some 

 few feet, arid a large bald eagle bearing off a fragment 

 of its frock ; which, being the only part seized and 



LE. 



giving way, providentially saved the life of the 

 infant. 



" The appetite of the bald eagle, though habituated 

 to long fasting, is of the most voracious and often the 

 most indelicate kind. Fish, when he can obtain them, 

 are preferred to all other fare. Young lambs and 

 pigs are dainty morsels, and made free with on all 

 favourable occasions. Ducks, geese, gulls, and other 

 sea fowl, are also seized with avidity. The most 

 putrid carrion, when nothing better can be had, is 

 acceptable ; and the collected groups of gormandizing 

 vultures, on the approach of this dignified personage, 

 instantly disperse, and make way for their master, 

 waiting his departure in sullen silence,and at a respect- 

 ful distance, on the adjacent trees. 



" In one of those partial migrations of tree squirrels 

 that sometimes take place in our western forests, many 

 thousands of them were drowned in attempting to 

 cross the Ohio ; and, at a certain place, not far from 

 Wheeling, a prodigious number of their dead bodies 

 were floated to the shore by an eddy. Here the 

 vultures assembled in great force, and had regaled 

 themselves for some time, when a bald eagle made his 

 appearance, and took sole possession of the premises, 

 keeping the whole vultures at their proper distance 

 for several days. He has also been seen navigating 

 the same river on a floating carrion, th*ugh scarcely 

 raised above the surface of the water, and tugging at 

 the carcase, regardless of snags, sawyers, planters, or 

 shallows. He sometimes carries his tyranny to great 

 extremes against the vultures. In hard times, when 

 food happens (o be scarce, should he accidentally 

 meet with one of these who has its craw crammed 

 with carrion, he attacks it fiercely in the air ; the 

 cowardly vulture instantly disgorges, and the delicious 

 contents are snatched up by the eagle before they 

 reach the ground. 



" The nest of this species is generally fixed on a 

 very large and lofty tree, often in a swamp or morass, 

 and difficult to be ascended. On some noted tree of 

 this description, often a pine, or cypress, the bald 

 eagle builds, year after year, for a long series of 

 years. When both male and female have been shot 

 from the nest, another pair has soon after taken pos- 

 session. The nest is large, being added and repaired 

 every season, until it becomes a black prominent 

 mass, observable at a considerable distance. It is 

 formed of large sticks, sods, earthy rubbish, hay, rnoss, 

 &c. Many have stated that the female lays first a 

 single egg, and that alter having sat upon it some 

 time, she lays another ; when the first is hatched, the 

 warmth of that, it is pretended, hatches the other. 

 Whether this be correct or not, I cannot determine ; 

 but a very respectable gentleman of Virginia assured 

 me that he saw a large tree cut down, containing the 

 nest of a bald eagle, in which were two young, one 

 of which appeared three times as large as the other? 

 As a proof of their attachment to their young, a per- 

 son near Norfolk informed me that in clearing a. piece 

 of wood on his place, they met with a large dr;id 

 pine tree, on which was a bald eagle's nest and young. 

 The tree being on fire more than half way up, and 

 the flames rapidly ascending, the parent eagle darted 

 around and among the flames, until her plumage was 

 so much injured, that it was with difficulty she could 

 make her escape, and even then, she several times 

 attempted to return to relieve her offspring. 



" No bird provides more abundantly for its young 

 than the bald eagle. Fish are daily carried thither 



