148 ACCIPITRES. 



distance, and the dash in the water is as if the lightning 

 had smitten a cliff, and the fragment fallen from it in the 

 lake. If, indeed, you have not observed her till the dash 

 catches your ear, you are at a loss to know what is in the 

 water, for the splash and spray hide the bird till the clutch 

 of the talons is secure. But no sooner is that accomplished 

 than she rises from the water, dashing the drops from her 

 ample wings, and soaring majestically with her prey to the 

 rock. If she misses in these her desperate efforts, she flies 

 off (sulkily, as one would say), either to a different part of 

 the lake, or from it altogether. The lifting of herself, loaded 

 as she is, and obliged to use her wings, not only near the 

 water, but actually on it, is a vast effort, and could not be at 

 all accomplished, if the under sides of the wings especially had 

 not the waterproof properties of the aquatic birds. When 

 the talons once clutch, they do not quit their hold easily; so 

 that if the wings were easily wetted, the bird would certainly 

 be drowned, as is sometimes the case with the sea-eagle, 

 when he strikes large fishes in deep water. The sea-eagle 

 is not, however, weight for weight, so powerfully winged, 

 and her wings have the waterproof property in a very inferior 

 degree. 



Though fishes are the chief prey of the fishing eagle, it 

 also stoops at and often catches water-fowl. But these, 

 though clutched with certainty, are not so easily borne off as 

 the fishes. The mere fact of being lifted out of the water 

 soon puts an end to the struggles of the fish, so that it is 

 carried off as so much mere weight, into the solid of which 

 the talons are struck. On the other hand, there is nothing 

 to hurt the bird but the clutch of the talons ; this is weakened 

 by the thick plumage, and may be inflicted so as not to 

 do serious injury, and when that is the case, the bird may 

 struggle and disentangle itself. Instances are mentioned of 

 birds so disentangling themselves, and being retaken in 



