220 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



see him do it. Instead, he made off toward the 

 mountains, and after a long chase and much croak- 

 ing, the raven turned away. 



This also had passed out of mind, and I was 

 on my way homeward, barely putting one foot 

 before the other, enjoying the air and the sun, 

 — and the mountains, — when, happening to 

 glance upward, I beheld a grand sight. " That 's 

 the golden eagle," I said aloud (in the desert a 

 man soon falls into the neighborly habit of talk- 

 ing to himself), and one look through the field- 

 glass proved the words correct. The great bird 

 was in perfect light, sailing in circles, so that his 

 upper parts came every minute into full view as 

 he swung about, the old gold of the head and 

 neck, as weU as the contrasted brown and black 

 of the wings, perfectly displayed, with nothing 

 left for guesswork. I was all eyes, and watched 

 him and watched him, admiring especially the 

 firm set of his wings, till he, too, sailed away, not 

 chased, but moving of his own royal will, and 

 dropped at last out of sight behind the rolling 

 desert. 



He was my first golden eagle, in some respects 

 one of the noblest of all North American birds. I 

 knew him to be not uncommon in the mountains, 

 and had hoped some day to see him passing, es- 

 pecially when I should be far out on the edge of 



