WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH-HAWK. 303 



dark slumberous home, and on strong vans goes beating up 

 towards the clouds ; ah, that too, was a sight ! 



But then to see deep down, that couchant tyrant deep 

 down below, "levelling his neck for flight" (as the " glorious 

 Weaver" has it) ! his war-crest raised, his wings half spread, 

 pausing for the moment on his stoop, and then, one clamor- 

 ous shriek of confident savage power, and see him vault 

 away, up, up, with a swift cleave, conquering gravitation, 

 and go lifted on the spell of wings ! Wonderful sight that 

 upward struggle ! The Fish-Hawk has taken warning from 

 the exulting cry of his old enemy, and with yet louder cries, 

 as if for help, goes up and upward, swifter, still with vain 

 beatings that scatter the fleece-forms of cloud, above me and 

 stir them whirling in gyrations. But no, the conqueror, 

 with overcoming wings, is upon him, with fierce buffetings, 

 the stirred chaos cannot hide from me, and the Fisher drops 

 its prey with a despairing shriek, while it goes gleaming head- 

 long toward its ravished home ! 



Now but an instant's poise while the sunlight can flash off 

 a ray from steadied plumes, and the eagle goes, dimmed with 

 swiftness, roaring down to catch the falling prey, before it 

 reach the wave ! Monarch humanity ! with poet's spirit- 

 wing hast thou in all thy hoary annals an image such as 

 this of swift all-conquering prowess 1 Napoleon is the near- 

 est type of the Bald Eagle the world ever saw ! excepting 

 the Yankee ! ! 



But the Fish-Hawk, although the mildest, the most gen- 

 erous and social of all the Falconidce, still recognizes that 

 point beyond which forbearance is a virtue. When the 

 plundering outrages of the Bald Eagle have been at length 

 carried to an intolerable extreme, in any particular locality, 

 the Fish-Hawks in the neighborhood combine in a common 

 assault upon the tyrannical robber. I have frequently wit- 

 nessed such scenes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 They abound in great numbers along the estuaries of its 

 great rivers. I remember particularly to have noted the 



