WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. I0I 



line, at a vast height, with expanded and unmoving wings, 

 till he gradually disappears in the distant blue ether. Seen 

 gliding in easy circles over the high shores and mountainous 

 cliffs that tower above the Hudson and Susquehanna, he 

 attracts the eye of the intelligent voyager, and adds great 

 interest to the scenery. At the great Cataract of Niagara, 

 already mentioned, there rises from the gulf into which the 

 Fall of the Horse-shoe descends, a stupendous column of 

 smoke, or spray, reaching to the heavens, atid moving off in 

 large black clouds, according to the direction of the wind, 

 forming a very striking and majestic appearance. The 

 eagles are here seen sailing about, sometimes losing them- 

 selves in this thick column, and again reappearing in another 

 place, with such ease and elegance of motion, as renders the 

 whole truly sublime. 



High o'er the watery uproar, silent seen, 

 Sailing sedate in majesty serene, 

 Now midst the pillar'd spray sublimely lost, 

 And now, emerging, down the Rapids tost, 

 Glides the bald eagle, gazing calm, and slow, 

 O'er all the horrors of the scene below ; 

 Intent alone to sate himself with blood, 

 From the torn victims of the raging flood. 



The white-headed eagle is three feet long, and seven feet 

 in extent ; the bill is of a rich yellow ; cere, the same, slightly 

 tinged with green ; mouth, flesh-coloured ; tip of the tongue, 

 bluish black ; the head, chief part of the neck, vent, tail- 

 coverts, and tail, are white in the perfect, or old birds of 

 both sexes, — in those under three years of age these parts are 

 of a gray brown ; the rest of the plumage is deep dark 

 brown, each feather tipt with pale brown, lightest on the 

 shoulder of the wing, and darkest towards its extremities. 

 The conformation of the wing is admirably adapted for the 

 support of so large a bird ; it measures two feet in breadth- 

 on the greater quills, and sixteen inches on the lesser ; the 

 longest primaries are twenty inches in length, and upwards 

 of one inch in circumference where they enter the skin ; 



