My Boyhood and Youth 



to take aim at a fish and plunging under 

 the water; the eagle with kindling eye spread- 

 ing his wings ready for instant flight in case 

 the attack should prove successful; the hawk 

 emerging with a struggling fish in his talons, 

 and proud flight; the eagle launching himself 

 in pursuit; the wonderful wing-work in the sky, 

 the fish hawk, though encumbered with his 

 prey, circling higher, higher, striving hard to 

 keep above the robber eagle; the eagle at length 

 soaring above him, compelling him with a cry 

 of despair to drop his hard-won prey; then the 

 eagle steadying himself for a moment to take 

 aim, descending swift as a lightning-bolt, and 

 seizing the falling fish before it reached the sea. 

 Not less exciting and memorable was Audu- 

 bon's wonderful story of the passenger pigeon, 

 a beautiful bird flying in vast flocks that dark- 

 ened the sky like clouds, countless millions 

 assembling to rest and sleep and rear their 

 young in certain forests, miles in length and 

 breadth, fifty or a hundred nests on a single 

 tree; the overloaded branches bending low and 

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