WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 37 



its carrying it away. My running, hallooing, and being very near, 

 might prevent its completing its design. It had broke the back in the 

 act of seizing it ; and I was under the necessity of killing it outright to 

 prevent its misery. The lamb's dam seemed astonished to see its inno- 

 cent offspring borne off into the air by a bir^. 



"I was lately told," continues Mr. Gardiner, "by a man of truth, 

 that he saw an Eagle rob a Hawk of its fish, and the Hawk seemed so 

 enraged as to fly down at the Eagle, while the Eagle very deliberately, 

 in the air, threw Jiimself partly over on his back, and while he grasped 

 with one foot the fish, extended the other to threaten or seize the Hawk. 

 I have known several Hawks unite to attack the Eagle ; but never knew 

 a single one to do it. The Eagle seems to regard the Hawks as the 

 Hawks do the King-birds, only as teasing, troublesome fellows." 



From the same intelligent and obliging friend, I lately received a well 

 preserved skin of the Bald Eagle, which, from its appearance, and the 

 note that accompanied it, seems to have belonged to a very formidable 

 ilidividual. " It was shot," says Mr. Gardiner, " last winter, on this 

 island, and .weighed thirteen pounds, measured three feet in length, and 

 seven from tip to tip of the expanded wings ; was extremely fierce-look- 

 ing ; though wounded, would turn his back to no one ; fastened his claws 

 into the head of a dog, and was with difSculty disengaged. I have rode 

 on horseback within five or six rods of one, who, by his bold demeanor, 

 raising his feathers, &c., seemed willing to dispute the ground with its 

 owner. The crop of the present was full of mutton from my part-blood 

 merinos ; and his intestines contained feathers, which he probably de- 

 voured with a duck, or winter gull, as I observed an entire foot and leg 

 of some water fowl. I had two killed previous to this which weighed 

 ten pounds avoirdupois each." 



The intrepidity of character, mentioned above, may be farther illus- 

 trated by the following fact, which occurred a few years ago, near Great 

 Egg Harbor, New Jersey. A woman who happened to be weeding in 

 the garden, had set her child down near, to amuse itself while she was 

 at work ; when a sudden and extraordinary rushing sound, and a scream 

 from her child alarmed her, and starting up, she beheld the infant 

 thrown down and dragged some few feet, and a large Bald Eagle bear- 

 ing off a fragment of its frock, which being the only part seized-, and 

 giving way, providentially saved the life of the infant. 



The appetite of the Bald Eagle, though habituated to long fasting, is 

 of the most voracious, and often the most indelicate kind. Fish, when 

 he can obtain them, are preferred to aH other fare. Young lambs and 

 pigs are dainty morsels, and made free with on all favorable occasions. 

 Ducks, geese, gulls, and other sea-fowl, are also seized with avidity. The 

 most putrid carrion, when nothing better can be had, is acceptable ; and 

 the collected groups of gormandizing Vultures, on the ajjproach of this 



