WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 161 



see the wounded bird perched on a low stump within half gun shot. I 

 fired, and the bird fell, but before I reached the spot, it flew off again 

 and tumbled into the river, where, in this to it new and wonderful ele- 

 ment, it flapped its wings, and made way so fast, that I took to the wa- 

 ter and brought it ashore, my faithful Newfoundland dog Plato being 

 on board, quite lamed by having brought me birds some days before from 

 banks of racoon oysters. After all, it was necessary to knock the bird on 

 the head, which done I returned to the party, none of whom had yet 

 found their prey, they having disagreed as to the course it had taken. 

 Being somewhat of a woodsman, I pointed towards the place where I 

 thought the bird must be, and after a few hundred yards walking among 

 palmettoes, Spanish bayonets, sword-grass, and other disagreeable under- 

 growth, we discovered the poor bird gasping in its last agonies. On ex- 

 amiiaing their bodies we found both v/ell supplied with shot, and I be- 

 came more assured than ever of the hardiness of the species. 



On the same river, 8th Februarij. — We visited another nest, on which, 

 by the aid of a telescope, we saw three young ones in the posture describ- 

 ed above. The bird first shot fell back in the nest and there remained : 

 it was struck by a bullet. The next was so severely wounded that it 

 clung outside the nest, until fired at a second time, when it fell. The 

 third was killed, as it was preparing to fly off. Our axes being dull, the 

 tree large, and a fair breeze springing up, we returned to the Spark, 

 where in a few hours these young birds were skinned, cooked, and eaten, 

 by those who had been " in at the death."" They proved good eating, 

 the flesh resembling veal in taste and tenderness. One of us only did not 

 taste of the dish, simply I believe from prejudice. The contents of the 

 stomachs of these young Eagles were large fragments of cat-fish heads 

 and bones of quadrupeds and birds. We frequently saw old birds of the 

 species sail down to the surface of the water, and rise holding in their 

 talons heads of cat-fishes which abounded on the water and were rejected, 

 as the inhabitants assured us, by the alligators, who content themselves 

 with the best part, the tail, leaving the heads to such animals as can dis- 

 sect them and escape the dangerous sharp bony guards placed near the 

 gUls, and which the fish has the power of firmly fixing at right angles as 

 if they were a pair of small bayonets. Should this really be a general 

 habit of the alligator, it indicates his faculty of gaining knowledge by 

 experience, or of having it naturally implanted. I could easily distin- 

 guish the sex of all the young Eagles of this species which we procured. 



VOL. 11. I, 



