THE FISHING EAGLE. 147 



liar slanting or gliding motion, in which the wings take few 

 strokes, compared with the progress made. But it is over 

 the fishing ground, especially when of considerable extent, 

 that the motions of this bird are seen to the greatest advan- 

 tage. Its manoeuvres in the air are alternate wheelings and 

 hoverings, the former to find where there is prey, and the 

 latter to watch till that prey comes within reach. Whilst 

 it hovers, it keeps the wings constantly in that rapid motion 

 which all birds of prey give them when preparing to stoop 

 upon prey which is not on the wing ; so that, when over the 

 proper spot, it is always ready. The wheelings are performed 

 with apparent little effort, the hovering motion enabling it to 

 shoot away, in a manner something similar to that in which a 

 stone is shot from a sling. 



The short time that the fishes remain at the surface when 

 they leap requires this activity. If the fish is a small one, 

 and leaps instantly, the bird comes down with much swift- 

 ness, but checks itself near the surface, and either twitches 

 out the fish with little more splash than the fish itself makes, 

 or if it is too late, it abandons, wheels round and round for a 

 turn or two, as if to wait till any alarm that it had occasioned 

 is over, and then it hovers anew, probably over the very 

 same spot. When it stoops in this manner for small fishes, 

 it is never from any very great height ; but if it come from 

 a greater height, which it does only for better game, the 

 exertion is more grand. The large fishes come less frequently 

 to the surface to feed than the small ones ; but when they do 

 come they feed more determinedly, though more warily ; and 

 therefore they are longer near the surface. When the osprey 

 has discovered one of these, which may be judged of from 

 her perfect stillness in place, and the increased vibratory 

 motion of her wings, she dashes down more perpendicularly, 

 and not less rapidly than the jer-falcon or the golden eagle. 

 The rushing of her descent may be heard at a considerable 



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