142 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



sway and bend beneath him. Finally, as a rifleman 

 started out in pursuit of him, he launched into the 

 air, set his wings, and sailed away southward. A 

 few years afterward, in January, another eagle passed 

 through the same locality, alighting in a field near 

 some dead animal, but tarried briefly. 



So much by way of identification. The bird is com- 

 mon to the northern parts of both hemispheres, and 

 places its eyrie on high precipitous rocks. A pair 

 built on an inaccessible shelf of rock along the Hudson 

 for eight successive years. A squad of Revolution- 

 ary soldiers, also, found a nest along this river, and 

 had an adventure with the bird that came near cost- 

 ing one of their number his life. His comrades let 

 him down by a rope to secure the eggs or young, 

 when he was attacked by the female eagle with such 

 fury that he was obliged to defend himself with his 

 knife. In doing so, by a misstroke, he nearly sev- 

 ered the rope that held him, and was drawn up by a 

 single strand from his perilous position. Audubon, 

 from whom this anecdote is taken, figures and de- 

 scribes this bird as the golden eagle, though I have 

 little doubt that Wilson was right, and that the 

 golden eagle is a distinct species. 



The sea-eagle, also, builds on high rocks, according 

 to Audubon, though Wilson describes the nest of one 

 which he saw near Great Egg Harbor, in the top of 

 a large yellow pine. It was a vast pile of sticks, 

 lods, sedge, grass, reeds, etc., etc., five or six fee* 

 iigh by four broad, and with little or no concavity 



