The Ways of Eagles



93



very equally matched in activity. After about five minutes, during

which they continued as above described, they parted, neither bird

having gained any advantage in pecking.


Although they are only sombre in appearance in their pale slate

plumage with darker slate crown and back parts, the Common Night

Heron has always seemed to me a well-proportioned bird in shape ;

and shows to most advantage (in my opinion) when stalking along the

ground towards night-time, with head lowered somewhat, and wings,

back, and tail carried on about the same level as the head, the beak

directed and pointing straight in front of it, walking rather rapidly.



THE WAYS OF EAGLES


Although it is known that the Fishing Eagle, like the white-headed

emblem of the United States, watches the Osprey for a chance of robbing

it of captured fish, it is, I believe, the common impression—it certainly

was mine—that Eagles as a class are, for the most part, independent

hunters, disdaining piratical methods of picking up a livelihood. That

this opinion is erroneous, like many an opinion formed by readers of

natural histories deprived of the opportunity of watching the behaviour

of wild animals at liberty, is shown by a chapter headed “ Aerial

Robbery ” in a delightful little book In Nature’s Garden, recently

written by Mr. C. H. Donald. In the hope that the account may interest

aviculturists as much as it interested me, I venture to reproduce the

substance of the incidents as graphically described by the author.


One day in India some commotion was observed amongst a number

of small birds, and a flock of Mynahs took refuge in a bush suppiving

very inadequate shelter. Suddenly a pair of Falcons appeared from a

clump of trees. One rose into the air, while the other descending within

a few feet of the ground, approached the bush at top speed, shot upwards

and then dropped like a stone at the bush, driving out the Mynahs by

the ruse. The tiercel poised aloft, then took up the chase, and stooping

at the flock succeeded after one or two failures in striking one of the

Mynahs. Thereupon a Pallas's Fishing Eagle, which had been awaiting

such a chance on the summit of a tree hard by, hastened to the spot.

The Falcons saw the danger, and while the male rose high in the air



