^62 



ANIMALS IN MENAGEKIES". 



face — silent and watchful cranes, intent and wadirrg' — • 

 clamorous crows, and all the winged multitudes that 

 subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of 

 nature. High over all these, hovers one whose action 

 instantly arrests his attention. By his wide curvature 

 of wing, and sudden suspension in the air, he knows 

 him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some devoted 

 victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, andy 

 balancing himself with half-opened wings on the branch, 

 he watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow from 

 heaven, descends the object of his attention ; the roar of 

 its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, 

 making the surges foam around ! At this moment, the 

 eager looks of the eagle are all ardour, and, levelling his 

 neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once more emerge, 

 struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with 

 screams of exultation. These are the signal for our 

 hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, 

 and soon gains on the fish-hawk. Each exerts his ut- 

 most to mount above the other; displaying, in these 

 rencontres, the most sublime aerial evolutions. The 

 unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the 

 point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden 

 scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the 

 latter drops his fish. The eagle, poising himself for a 

 moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like 

 a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the 

 water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to 

 the woods." 



Many of the habits of this powerful robber are al- 

 together cowardly and ignoble : if pressed for food, he 

 devours carrion, which he steals in the same manner 

 from the black American vulture. Dr. Richardson re- 

 marks, that " the industry with which the parents pro- 

 vide their young with food, is often attested by the air 

 being tainted, to a considerable distance from the nest^ 

 by the smell of the fish that they are unable to consume. 



That simple and matter-of-fact philosopher. Dr. 

 Frankland, vieAvs the habits of this bird under a dif- 



