THE EOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ence of man ; a jealous shyness which cannot bear 

 to be even looked at, and which prompts the 

 creature to haunt the most recluse and solitary 

 places. This disposition invests them with a 

 poetic interest. The loneliness of the situations 

 which they choose for their retreats has in itself 

 a charm, and the rarity with which we can ob- 

 tain a glimpse of them in their solitudes makes 

 the sight proportionally gratifying when we can 

 obtain it. 



The golden eagle seeks for its eyrie the peak of 

 some inaccessible rock, far from the haunts of 

 man, whose domain it shuns. Here it forms its 

 platform-nest, rearing its young in awful silence 

 and solitude, unbroken even by the presence of 

 bird or beast ; for these it jealously drives from its 

 neighbourhood. The bald eagle of North America 

 achieves the same end by selecting the precipices of 

 cataracts for its abode. Lewis and Clarke have 

 described* the picturesque locality of the nest of a 

 pair of these birds amidst the grand scenery of the 

 Falls of the Missouri. Just below the upper fall 

 there is a little islet in the midst of the boiling 

 river, well covered with wood. Here, on a lofty 

 cotton-wood tree, a pair of bald eagles had built 

 their nest, the undisputed lords of the spot, to 

 contest whose dominion neither man nor beast 

 would venture across the gulf which surrounds it, 

 the awfulness of their throne being further de- 

 fended by the encircling mists which perpetually 

 arise from the falls. 



Our own wild-duck or mallard is a shy bird, 

 avoiding the haunts of man, and resorting to the 

 reedy margins of some lonely lake, or broad reach 

 of a river. The summer-duck of America has 

 similar habits, but more delights in woods. I 

 * "Expedition," i. p. 2(54. 

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