442 AVES-EAGLE. 
surface of the water. When her prey appears within her reach, she pauses 
not an instant, but raising her broad wings upwards against the air, and 
thus taking advantage of the elasticity of both, shoots down as if discharged 
from a bow or an air-gun, makes the cliff echo to her cherup, and dashes 
upon the water with the same thunder and spray, as if a lightning-rent 
fragment had been precipitated from the height. For an instant the column 
of spray conceals her, but she soon ascends, bearing the prey in her talons, 
and a brief space elapses before she is lost in the distance.” 
As this eagle will eat carrion, it is used as a bait te catch him in Suther- 
Jandshire. A minature house, or at least the wall part of it, is built on 
ground frequented by the eagle, and an opening left at the foot of the wall 
sufficient for the egress cf the bird. To the outside of this opening a bit of 
strong cord is fixed, with a noose formed on one end, and the other end 
returning through the noose. After a!! this operation is finished, a piece 
of carrion is thrown into the house, whieh the eagle finds out and perches 
upon. It eats voraciously; and when it 1s fully satiated, it never thinks of 
taking its flight immediately upwards, unless disturbed, provided it can find 
an easier way to get out of the house; for it appears that it is not easy for it 
to begin its flight but in an oblique direction ; consequently it walks delibe- 
rately out at the opening left for it, and the noose catches hold of-and fairly 
strangles it. 
THE WASHINGTON EAGLE. 
Tue discovery of this noble American birdy We owe to Mr J. J. Audubon, 
who considers it a new species, never before described by naturalists. 
There are many, however, who regard it as the sea eagle of Europe just 
described. Mr Audubon’s discovery is thus related in his own words. 
“Tt was on a winter’s evening, in the month of February, 1814, that, for 
the first time in my life, I had an opportunity of seeing this rare and noble 
bird ; and never shall I forget the delight it gave me. Not even Herscnel, 
when he discovered the famous planet which bears his name, could have 
experienced more happy feelings. To have something new to relate, to 
become yourself a contributor to science, must excite the proudest emotions 
of the human heart. 
“We were on a trading voyage, ascending the Upper Mississippi, —the 
keen winter blasts whistled over our heads, and the cold from which I 
suffered had, ina great degree, extinguished the deep interest which, at other 
seasons, this river has been wont to awake in me. JI lay stretched beside 
our patroon ; the safety of the cargo was forgotten, and the only thing that 
- 
1 Falco Washingtonianus, AupuBON, 
