THE BALD EAGLE 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 82 



It is a real event to see a Bald Eagle wild in its native haunts. It is 

 so large, so majestic, and flies with an evidence of so enormous strength, 

 that one is impressed with the thought that here is the King of Birds. 



On one occasion, while eating my lunch 

 ~^ in the shade of a little bush on a south- 

 ern prairie, I saw one carry off a lamb. 

 The noise of some running sheep, not 

 far away, caused me to look up just as 

 the eagle rose from the ground with its 

 prey. It did not once pause and flutter 

 its wings, as birds-of-prey sometimes 

 do, in order to get a better hold of its 

 burden, for it seemed to have seized the 

 lamb securely when it first made its 

 downward plunge. The bird flew with 

 truly surprising swiftness, and bore 

 the weight of its "kill" without appar- 

 ent effort. I watched it for half a mile 

 or more until it disappeared in the 

 forest, and not once did it show any 

 indication of weariness. Years later I 

 read an account written by a bird- 

 student who watched an eagle alight 

 on the beach after having carried a 

 lamb weighing more than the bird itself 

 for a distance of five miles across a body 

 of water. It is hard to believe that a 

 bird may be strong enough to accom- 

 plish such a task as that. 



Bald Eagles catch many of the larger water-birds, especially wounded 

 ducks. On the lakes and sounds where much hunting is carried on in 

 winter many hundreds of crippled wildfowl are left behind when the flocks 

 migratr northward in spring. These fall an easy prey to the eagles that 

 usually frequent such regions. Once I saw one capture a broken-winged 

 ('(it in Currituck Sound, North Carolina. At the approach of its big 

 enrmy the Coot dived, but soon had to come up to breathe, when the 

 instantly swooped. Again and again the helpless bird dived and 



NEST OF BALD hAGi 



