190 History of Nature. [BooK X. 



Coward, and of an inferior Race, for a Raven will buffet her. 

 She hath a greedy Appetite, and a continued whining Mur- 

 mur. Of all the Eagles she only carrieth away the dead Prey ; 

 whereas when the others have killed it, they settled upon 

 it. This Kind causeth the fifth to be called Gnesws, as being 

 the true, and the only one of pure descent. This Eagle is of 

 a middle size, of a reddish Colour, and rare to be seen. 

 There remaineth the Haliaetos ; which hath the sharpest 

 Sight of all others, poising herself on high ; and when she 

 spieth a Fish in the Sea, down she comes upon it with a 

 Rush, and dashes the Waves aside with her Breast as she 

 snatcheth it up. That Eagle which we have made the third, 

 haunteth standing Waters to prey upon Water-fowl, which 

 now and then dive under the Water ; but she seizeth them 

 as they become wearied and confounded. The Contest is 

 worth looking at ; while the Bird endeavours to gain the 

 Shore for Refuge, especially if it be well covered with thick 

 Reeds, and the Eagle for her Part drives her from thence 

 with a Blow of the Wing ; and whilst the Eagle striketh, 

 and in so doing falleth into the Lake, the Fowl that swim- 

 meth beneath the Water, seeing the Shadow of the Eagle 

 hovering about the Shore, riseth up again in another Place, 

 where her Pursuer could least have looked for her. This is 

 the Cause why these Wild-fowl commonly swim in Flocks ; 

 for when they are many together, they are not troubled, 

 because with dashing the Water with their Wings, they 

 dazzle the Sight of their Enemy. Often, also, the very 

 Eagles, not able to bear up the Weight they have seized, are 

 drawn under the Water with it. The Haliceetos only, before 

 her young ones are yet feathered, beats them, and thereby 

 forces them to look full against the Sunbeams; and if she 

 notices any one of them to wink, or their Eyes to water, she 

 throws it out of the Nest, as a bastard and inferior Sort ; 

 but she educates that one whose Eye-sight is strong enough 

 to sustain the Gaze. Haliceeti are not a separate Kind of 

 Eagles, but proceed from the coupling of different Sorts. 

 And that Kind which is produced by them is regarded as a 

 Sort of Ossifragus ; from which are propagated the lesser 



