232 CLASS AVES. 



trine tribe, and is pretty generally spread through France, 

 Germany, and most of the countries of Europe from north to 

 south. It is also found in Barbary, Egypt, Louisiana, and 

 even in the island of Pins in the South Sea. The balbuzzards 

 of the reeds in Carolina and Cayenne, appear to be only 

 varieties of the same species, which equally inhabits Pennsyl- 

 vania, and is sometimes called piravera. 



The places which the balbuzzard prefers to frequent, are not 

 the shores of the sea, but low lands bordering on ponds and 

 rivers, from which habit it might be termed the fresh-water 

 eagle. Perched on a lofty tree, or hovering at a considerable 

 elevation in the air, it watches the fish from afar, descends 

 upon it with the rapidity of lightning, seizes it at the moment 

 it appears on the surface of the water, or even plunges in 

 completely after it, and carries it off in its talons. But this 

 prey, the weight of which renders the flight of the bird slow 

 and laborious, does not always remain the portion of the 

 balbuzzard. On the banks of the Ohio, where it goes to fish, 

 when the perca ocellata quits the ocean to enter the river, 

 dwells also the formidable pygargus. When he sees the 

 balbuzzard arrived to the height of his eyrie, he quits his 

 own, pursues him closely, until the fisher, convinced of his 

 inferiority, abandons the prey ; then this fierce antagonist 

 with folded wings shoots down like an arrow, and with the 

 most inconceivable address, seizes the fish again before it 

 reaches, the river. The right of the strongest is the sovereign 

 arbiter of small and great events, and governs throughout the 

 universe with resistless sway, in the air, on the earth, and 

 under the waters. 



But as a corsair, whose booty has been taken by an enemy 

 in sight of port, undertedies a new expedition in the hope of 

 being more fortunate, so the balbuzzard recommences his 

 operations, and possessed of a fresh prey, he usually succeeds, 

 if it be not too heavy, in escaping with it from his redoubtable 

 foe. These scenes continually occur as long as the fish above- 



