AN EAGLE'S NEST. 115 



I'm blamed if he didn't grasp that fish in his great 

 claws, long before it reached the water, and flew across 

 the lake to a great rock, and devoured it. Now, I've 

 no doubt he'd been watching that fish-hawk from his 

 place, away up in the sky, to rob him of his lawful 

 spoils. I say, again, the eagle's a robber and a thief, 

 usin' his strength to plunder; and I give him a 

 bullet whenever he comes within range of my rifle. 

 He's a solitary, and a selfish bird too. I have seen 

 their nests, and watched to see the old one bring food 

 for her young; but at such time I never saw the 

 father of the family. If there was one, he didn't think 

 much of his home or children, for I never saw him 

 about. May be he was away preparin' meals for his 

 wife ; but he didn't stay much about home, that's cer- 

 tain. I mind once, old Pete Meigs and I was up 

 among the Adirondack^, about the upper end of Long 

 Lake, and the hundred other little lakes that lay there 

 among the mountains. On one side of one of 'em, 

 that I never heard the name of, is a high mountain, 

 around the point of which the lake bends, and where 

 the rocks rise high, away up in an almost a perpen- 

 dicular precipice, we saw one of their nests. It was 

 built among the branches of a fir tree, that stretched 



