STRANGE BIRDS AND THEIR WAYS. 269 



There he blends his keen shriek with the roar of the 



flood, 

 And the many-voiced sounds of the blast-smitten wood. 

 7. "From the crag-grasping fir-top, where morn hangs its 

 wreath, 

 He views the mad waters white writhing beneath. 

 On a limb of that moss-bearded hemlock far down, 

 With bright azure mantle and gay mottled crown, 

 The kingfisher watches, while o'er him his foe, 

 The fierce hawk, sails circling, each moment more low : 

 Now poised are those pinions and pointed that beak, 

 His dread swoop is ready, when hark ! with a shriek 

 His eye-balls red blazing, high bristling his crest, 

 His snake-like neck arched, talons drawn to his breast, 

 With the rush of the wind-gust, the glancing of light, 

 The gray forest eagle shoots down in his flight ; 

 One blow of those talons, one plunge of that neck, 

 The strong hawk hangs lifeless, a blood-dripping wreck ; 

 And as dives the freed kingfisher, dart-like on high 

 With his prey soars the eagle, and melts in the sky." 

 8. Lastly we will get the opinion of the shrewd and 

 genial old philosopher, Benjamin Franklin. His remarks 

 were made when called upon to examine a medal which 

 had been struck off for the Cincinnati, a society formed ex- 

 clusively of officers who had served in the revolutionary 

 armies. This medal had been criticised in its execution. 

 He says : "To me it seems tolerably done ; but all such 

 things are criticised. Some find fault with the Latin, as 

 wanting classical elegance and correctness ; and since our 

 nine universities were not able to furnish better Latin, it 

 was a pity, they say, that the mottoes had not been in 

 English. Others object to the title, as not properly as- 

 sumable by any but General Washington and a few others 

 who served without pay. Others object to the bald eagle, 

 as looking like a turkey. 



