298 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



pression of doubt, whether it may not still prove to be the 

 young of the Bald Eagle, (Falco Leucocephalus,) and which 

 strong doubt of his has since been proven beyond question, 

 to have suggested the truth. Wilson says : 



" We were disposed after the manner of some, to sub- 

 stitute, for plain matters of fact, all the narratives, conjec- 

 tures and fanciful theories of travellers, voyagers, compilers, 

 etc., relative to the history of the eagle ; the volumes of these 

 writers, from Aristotle down to his admirer, the Count de 

 Buffon, would furnish abundant materials for this purpose. 

 But the author of the present work feels no ambition to ex- 

 cite surprise and astonishment at the expense of truth, or to 

 attempt to elevate and embellish his subject beyond the plain 

 realities of nature. On this account he cannot assent to the 

 assertion, however eloquently made in the celebrated parallel 

 drawn by the French Naturalist between the lion and the 

 eagle, viz. : that the eagle, like the lion, * disdains the pos- 

 session of that property which is not the fruit of his own 

 industry, and rejects, with contempt, the prey which is not 

 procured by his own exertions ;' since the very reverse of 

 this is the case, in the conduct of the Bald and Sea-Eagle, 

 who, during the summer months, are the constant robbers 

 and plunderers of the Osprey or Fish-Hawk, by whose indus- 

 try alone both are fed. Nor that, ' though famished for want 

 of prey, he disdains to feed on carrion /' since we have our- 

 selves seen the Bald Eagle, while seated on the dead carcass 

 of a horse, keep a whole flock of vultures at a respectful 

 distance, until he has fully sated his own appetite The 

 Count has also taken great pains to expose the ridiculous 

 opinion of Pliny, who conceived that the Osprey s formed 

 no separate race, and that they proceeded from the inter- 

 mixture of different species of eagles, the young of which 

 were not Ospreys, only sea eagles : ' which sea eagles] says 

 he, t 'breed small vultures, which engender great vultures, that 

 have not the power of propagation.' 1 But, while laboring to 

 confute these absurdities, the Count himself in his belief on 



