THE EAGLE. 131 



on the shore, till its wings are quite covered with 

 sand. It then rises again, and hovers over its vic- 

 tim. When close to it, it shakes its wings, and thus 

 scatters the gravel and sand into the eyes of the ox> 

 while it adds to the fright of the animal by blows 

 with its powerful wings. The blinded animal be- 

 comes stupified, and runs about quite raving, and, at 

 length, falls down wholly exhausted; or, like the 

 deer in the Shiant Islands, dashes itself to death by 

 falling over some cliff; when the Eagle mangles 

 undisturbed the fruits of its victory*. 



There is a remarkably fine Eagle in North' America, 

 called the great Sea Eagle, or Bird of Washington ; 

 it is very rare, confining itself usually to lonely situa- 

 tions, occasionally, however, following the hunters, 

 to feed on the entrails of the animals they kill, when 

 excluded by ice from its favourite water-haunts, 

 where in open weather it dives for fish. 



A naturalist, who was extremely anxious to meet 

 with one, had long laboured in vain, when one day, 

 as he was engaged in collecting cray-fish, near the 

 Ohio, a large river in North America, he chanced to 

 observe on the rocks, which at that place were nearly 

 perpendicular, a quantity of white droppings, which 

 led him to conclude that Owls resorted thither; but, 

 having been assured by a more experienced com- 

 panion, that they must have fallen from a nest of one 

 of their long-looked-for Birds of Washington, and 

 that the old ones caught fish on the river, he deter- 

 mined to watch for them, and in high expectation 

 seated himself, with his friend, about a hundred 

 yards from the foot of the rock. For two long hours 

 * Annals of Philosophy, vol. i. 



K 2 



