HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



with down, and a sort of white woolly fea- 

 thers, the female eagle lays again. These 

 eggs are left to be hatched by the warmth of 

 the young ones that continue in the nest ; so 

 that the flight of one brood makes room for 

 the next that are but just hatched. These 

 birds fly very heavily; so that they cannot 

 overtake their prey, like others of the same 

 denomination. To remedy this, they often 

 attend a sort of fishing-hawk, which they 

 pursue, arid strip the plunderer of its prey. 

 This is the more remarkable, as this hawk 

 flies swifter than they. These eagles also 

 generally attend upon fowlers in the winter; 

 and when any birds are wounded, they are 

 sure to be seized by the eagle, though they 

 may fly from the fowler. This bird will often 

 also steal young pigs, and carry them alive to 

 the nest, which is composed of twigs, sticks, 

 and rubbish ; it is large enough to fill the 

 body of a cart; and is commonly full of bones 

 half eaten, and putrid flesh, the stench of 

 which is intolerable. 1 



The distinctive marks of each species are 

 as follow : 



1 Wilson, in liis. American Ornithology, gives the 

 following spirited description of the bald or white-headed 

 eagle. 



The celebrated cataract of Niagara, he says, is a 

 noted place of resort for those birds, as Avell on account 

 of the fish procured there, as for the numerous carcasses 

 of squirrels, deer, bears, and various other animals, that 

 in their attempts to cross the river above the falls have 

 been dragged into the current, and precipitated down 

 that tremendous gulf, where, among the rocks that 

 bound the rapids below, they furnish a rich repast for the 

 vulture, the raven, and the bald eagle, the subject of the 

 present account. 



This bird has been long known to naturalists, being 

 common to both continents, and occasionally met with 

 from a very high northern latitude, to the borders of the 

 torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, and 

 along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers. 

 Formed by nature for braving the severest cold ; feeding 

 equally on the produce of the sea and of the land: pos- 

 sessing powers of flight capable of outstripping even the 

 tempests themselves ; unawed by anything but man ; and 

 from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking 

 abroad, at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of 

 forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him, he ap- 

 pears indifferent to the little localities of change of sea- 

 sons; as in a few minutes he can pass from summer to 

 winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the at- 

 mosphere, the abode of eternal cold, and from thence 

 descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the 

 earth. He is therefore found at all seasons in the 

 countries he inhabits, but prefers all such places as have 

 been mentioned above, from the great partiality he has for 

 fish. In procuring these, he displays, in a very singular 

 manner, the genius and energy of his character, which 

 is fierce, contemplative, daring, and tyrannical ; attri- 

 butes not exerted but on particular occasions ; but when 

 put forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the 

 high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a 

 wide view of the neighbouring shore and ocean, he seems 

 calmly to contemplate the motions of the various fea- 

 thered tribes that pursue their busy avocations below : 

 the snow-white gulls slowly winnowing the air; the busy 



The golden eagle : of a tawny iron colour ; 

 the head and neck of a reddish iron ; the tail 

 feathers of a dirty white, marked with cross 

 bands of tawny iron ; the legs covered with 

 tawny iron feathers. 



The common eagle : of a brown colour ; the 

 head and upper part of the neck inclining to 

 red ; the tail feathers white, blackening at the 

 ends ; the outer ones, on each side, of an ash 

 colour ; the legs covered with feathers of a 

 reddish brown. 



The bald eagle; brown ; the head, neck, and 

 tail feathers, white ; the feathers of the upper 

 part of the leg brown. 



The white eagle : the whole white. 



The rough-footed eagle : of a dirty brown ; 

 spotted under the wings, and on the legs, with 

 white ; the feathers of the tail white at the be- 

 ginning and the point ; the leg-feathers dirty 

 brown, spotted with white. 



The white-tailed eagle : dirty brown ; head 

 white ; the stems of the feathers black ; the 

 rump inclining to black : the tail feathers, the 

 first half black, the end half white ; legs 

 naked. 2 



tringae (sandpipers) coursing along the sands ; trains of 

 ducks streaming over the surface ; silent and watchful 

 cranes, intent and wading ; clamorous crows, and all 

 the winged multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this 

 vast liquid magazine of nature. High over all these 

 hovers one whose action instantly arrests all his atten- 

 tion. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden sus- 

 pension in the air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk 

 (Pandion Halicetus. Savigny,) settling over some de- 

 voted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, 

 and balancing himself, with half-opened wings, on the 

 branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow 

 from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, 

 the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in 

 the deep, making the surge foam around. At this mo- 

 ment the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour; and 

 levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once 

 more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting 

 in the air with screams of exultation. These are the 

 signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly 

 gives chace, and soon gains on the fish-hawk; each ex- 

 erts his utmost to mount above the other, displaying in 

 the rencontre the most elegant and sublime aerial evolu- 

 tions. The unincumbered eagle rapidly advances, and 

 is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when with 

 a sudden scream, probably of despair au,d honest execra- 

 tion, the latter drops his fish; the eagle, poising him- 

 self for a moment as if to take a more certain aim, des- 

 cends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it 

 reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently 

 away to the woods. 



These predatory attacks and defensive manoeuvres of 

 the eagle and fish-hawk are matters of daily observation 

 along the whole of our sea-board, from Georgia to New 

 England, and frequently excite great interest in the 

 spectators. Sympathy, however, on this as on most 

 other occasions, generally sides with the honest and la- 

 borious sufferer, in opposition to the attacks of power, in- 

 justice, and rapacity, qualities for which our hero is so 

 generally notorious, and which, in his superior, man, 

 are equally detestable. As for the feelings of the poor fish, 

 they seem altogether out of the question. Amcr. Ornith, 



* This bird often presents a fine feature in the wild 



