96 BIRDS OF OHIO. 



the Golden Eagle is very beneficial, confining its attention 

 mainly to those noxious animals; but in places where wild 

 game is scarce it is often very destructive to the young of 

 domesticated animals, and hence in such places has to be 

 kept in check." (Fisher.) 



There are many accounts of the ferocity and cruelty of 

 this large bird of prey, some of which are probably true. It 

 has been known to kill a good sized black-tailed deer, and in 

 rare instances to attack a man who interfered with it while 

 it was feeding. Even in defense of its young it is usually 

 not courageous but an arrant coward. It is more than like- 

 ly that the accounts of the capture of children by this bird 

 are good illustrations of vivid imagination. While a hun- 

 gry bird might pounce upon an unprotected infant it is ex- 

 tremely unlikely that a child old enough to walk would be 

 molested. 



132. (352.) Hali^etus leucocephalus (Linn.). 176. 

 Bald Eagle. 



Synonyms: Falco leucocephalus, F. washingtonianus, F. wash- 

 ingtonii. j 



Whie-headed Eagle, Bird of Washington. 

 Wilson, Am. Orn., IV, 1812, 890. 



While the Bald Eagle is common near Sandusky and 

 among the islands north of there, it is rare in the other parts 

 of the state. It does not seem to migrate southward in win- 

 ter, but is strictly resident wherever it occurs. The two 

 eagles are too large to be confused with the hawks, and the 

 white head and tail of this species is wholly distinctive. 



"The favorite food of the Bald Eagle is fish, and where 

 this vertebrate can be procured the bird will touch little else. 

 Of the hundreds of these Eagles which the writer has 

 watched, none were observed ever to touch anything except 

 fish or ofifal picked up from rivers or along their shores. 

 What proportion of the fish consumed is taken from the 

 Osprey is hard to estimate, but the number must be very 

 great. 



'What we have said in reference to the Golden Eagle 



