10 NORTH AMERICAN EAGLES. 



Food. 



Fish seems to be the principal food of the bald eagle, and when 

 obtainable is often preferred to anything else. The dead fish found 

 along the shores of sea or lake or river, those that the eagle catches by 

 its own efforts, and those of which it robs the osprey are alike accepta- 

 ble. In many places it obtains a good share of its food from the dead 

 fish cast up by the waves. Mr. William Brewster mentions that in 

 1879 it was abundant about Lake Umbagog, Maine, drawn thither to 

 feed on the suckers that in great numbers had died and been left on 

 the marshes and flats by the receding water, while Audubon relates 

 that it was frequently seen to pick up catfish heads which were floating 

 on the St. Johns River, Florida. Mr. C. P. Streater found it common 

 at Sauk, Wash., in September, 1891, feeding on the dead salmon 

 (OncorJiyncJius sp.) along the shore; and similar observations have 

 been made by others on the Columbia and other rivers of the Pacific 

 Coast. Mr. J. C. Hughes records a that along the lower Fraser River 

 in British Columbia he has found it feeding extensively on the 

 oolachans, or eulachons (TJialeichthys pacificus), a small fish that is 

 abundant there; and so numerous does the eagle become at times 

 when the fish are running that Mr. Hughes has on occasion counted 

 as many as a thousand in a distance of 3 miles. 



But the bald eagle not infrequently goes fishing for itself, using a 

 variety of methods, according to circumstances. Sometimes from 

 its perch on the summit of a dead tree it launches downward and, fall- 

 ing like a stone, seizes its prey; sometimes it hunts on the wing, much 

 like an osprey, and when a fish is perceived poises by rapid wing- 

 beats, finally dropping into the water even from a great height, and 

 not infrequently becoming almost completely submerged; then, 

 again, it varies this last method by flying leisurely along near the sur- 

 face of the water. Audubon mentions that along Perkiomen Creek 

 near Philadelphia, Pa., he saw it on several occasions wading in the 

 shallows and striking at the small fish with its bill ; and other observ- 

 ers elsewhere have noted a similar habit. It has been seen scram- 

 bling over the ice of a pond, trying to reach the fish below; and Mr. 

 W. L. Dawson, in his 'Birds of Ohio/ says that at the Licking Reser- 

 voir, Ohio, it is reported in winter to watch near the air holes in the 

 ice for the fish that from time to time seek the surface. Mr. J. G. 

 Cooper has seen it catch a flying fish in the air, and the amazing 

 celerity necessary for the performance of such an exploit may readily 

 be imagined. 



Although the bald eagle does often fish for itself, it finds a much 

 easier and more congenial task in robbing the mild-mannered ospre 



a Forest and Stream, XVIII, 1882, p. 85. 



