80 WINGED ENEMIES OF WILD FOWL 



In the pursuit of this game this eagle employs great 

 strength and skill, to which it frequently adds no 

 small amount of strategy. Geese, brant and swans, 

 owing apparently to their large size, are its favorite 

 food.* 



Mr. William Brewster says geese and brant form the 

 favorite food of the eagle, and the address displayed in 

 their capture is very remarkable. The poor victim has 

 apparently not the slightest chance for escape. The 

 eagle's flight, ordinarily slow and somewhat heavy, be- 

 comes, in the excitement of pursuit, exceedingly swift and 

 graceful, and the fugitive is quickly overtaken. When 

 close upon its quarry the eagle suddenly sweeps beneath 

 it, and, turning back downward, thrusts its powerful 

 talons up into its breast. A brant or duck is carried off 

 bodily to the nearest marsh or sandbar, but a Canada 

 goose is too heavy to be thus easily disposed of. The 

 two great birds fall together to the water beneath, where 

 the eagle literally tows his prize along the surface until 

 the shore is reached. . . . The royal bird seems to find 

 little difficulty in overhauling the swiftest flying ducks. 



The eagles are said to be numerous on the Atlantic 

 coast near Cape Charles in the Winter. Mr. Nathan 

 Cobb informed Mr. Brewster that on several occasions 

 he had seen as many as eight at once. 



The gray sea eagle, about the same size as the bald 

 eagle, is also fond of wild fowl, but in America it occurs 

 only in Greenland, on the shores of the Cumberland 

 Sound and on the Aleutian Islands. f 



The golden eagle, often called the mountain eagle, is 



*"The N. Am. Eagles." Bulletin 27, Biological Survey, U. 8. Dept. Agr. 

 t Bulletin 27, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agr. 



