148 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



nourishing sublime ideas. I should like to know why it 

 soars higher and higher so, whether its thoughts are 

 really turned to earth, for it seems to be more nobly as 

 well as highly employed than the laborers ditching in 

 the meadow beneath or any others of my fellow-towns- 

 men. 



BALD EAGLE ; WHITE-HEADED EAGLE 



April 8, 1854. Saw a large bird sail along over the 

 edge of Wheeler's cranberry meadow just below Fair 

 Haven, which I at first thought a gull, but with my 

 glass found it was a hawk and had a perfectly white 

 head and tail and broad or blackish wings. It sailed 

 and circled along over the low cliff, and the crows dived 

 at it in the field of my glass, and I saw it well, both 

 above and beneath, as it turned, and then it passed off 

 to hover over the Cliffs at a greater height. It was un- 

 doubtedly a white-headed eagle. It was to the eye but 

 a large hawk. 



April 23, 1854. Saw my white-headed eagle again, 

 first at the same place, the outlet of Fair Haven Pond. 

 It was a fine sight, he is mainly — i. e. his wings and 

 body — so black against the sky, and they contrast so 

 strongly with his white head and tail. He was first fly- 

 ing low over the water ; then rose gradually and circled 

 westward toward White Pond. Lying on the ground 

 with my glass, I could watch him very easily, and by 

 turns he gave me all possible views of himself. When 

 I observed him edgewise I noticed that the tips of his 

 wings curved upward slightly the more, like a stereo- 

 typed undulation. He rose very high at last, till I al- 



