96 BIRDS OF OHIO. 
the Golden Eagle is very beneficial, confining its attention 
mainly to those noxious animals; but in places where wild 
game ‘is scarce it is often very destructive to the young of 
domesticated animals, and hence in such places has to be 
‘kept in check.” (Fisher.) 
There are many accounts of the ferocity and cruelty of 
.this large bird of prey, some of which are probably true. It 
has been known to kill a good sized black-tailed deer, and in 
rare instances to attack a man who interfered with it while 
it was feeding. Even in defense of its young it is usually 
not courageous but an arrant coward. It is more than like- 
ly that the accounts of the capture of children by this bird 
are good illustrations of vivid imagination. While a hun- 
gry bird might. pounce-upon an unprotected infant it is ex- 
-tremely unlikely that a child’old enough to walk would be 
molested. 
132. (852.) HaALi@eTUS LEUCOCEPHALUS (Linn.). 176. 
Bald Eagle. 
Synonyms: Falco leucocephalus, F. washingtonianus, F. wash- 
ingtonii. : 
Whie-headed Eagle, Bird of Washington. 
Wilson, Am. Orn., IV, 1812, 890. 
, 
While the Bald Eagle is common near Sandusky and 
among the islands north of there, it is rare in the other parts 
of the state. It does not seem to migrate southward in win- 
ter, but is strictly resident wherever it occurs. The two 
eagles are too large to be confused with the hawks, and the 
white head and tail of this species is wholly distinctive. 
“The favorite food of the Bald Eagle is fish, and where 
this vertebrate can be procured the bird will touch little else. 
Of the hundreds of these Eagles which the writer has 
watched, none were observed ever to touch anything except 
fish or offal picked up from rivers or along their shores. 
What proportion of the fish consumed is taken from the 
Osprey is hard: to estimate, but the number must be very 
great. 
“What we have said in reference to the Golden Eagle 
