BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



broad valleys veined by streams that seem but curved and 

 bent threads of silver viewed distantly — and plains whose 

 wind-swept grasses are like the smooth waves on the surface 

 of the quiet sea beyond the mountains. 



Swinging or poised high in space, with a cloudless sky 

 above and a panoramic earth below, he is master of the situa- 

 tion, for the very air is obedient to his will. Setting his 

 tense wings to the air currents, around the great upturned 

 bowl above he sweeps and careens and circles as if borne 

 about by a whirlwind existing for his enjoyment; then shoots 

 off across the hills to a point over a lake, where again he 

 circles and swings, his keen eye all the while searching its 

 waters, till, suddenly, dropping like some black body shot 

 from the sky, he falls to the water, whose surface is scarcely 

 disturbed as he rises with a great fish, slain with one grasp 

 of his clutching talons, and bears it away to his eyrie, there 

 to feast at leisure on his finny prey. 



Solitude seems essential to eagle happiness, for these 

 birds always prefer to make their homes among the wildest 

 scenery, their chief haunts being about the most lonely parts 

 of our great lakes, or amid the Rockies, though among them 

 there is occasionally a pair who are willing to live in more 

 thickly inhabited sections — possibly because their individual 

 ancestors lived there when it, too, was a wilderness, for the 

 eagle's attachment to place is strong. The only indispensa- 

 ble requisite is nearness to water in which fish abound. 



Some eagles choose rocky ledges as building spots, while 

 others prefer to make their homes in lofty trees. If the latter 

 location is chosen, they are careful to select a place where 

 there will be nothing to interfere with their free movements. 



In his home the eagle is always an aristocrat, never 

 moving about from place to place, but clinging to the an- 



48 



