THE HAWK EAGLE. 
21 
Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the distant 
object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear 
as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around ! 
At this moment, the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour ; 
and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once 
more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting in 
the air with screams of exultation. These are the signal 
for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives 
chase, and soon gains on the fish-hawk ; each exerts his ut- 
most to mount above the other, displaying in these rencontres 
the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unen- 
cumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point 
of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, pro- 
bably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his 
fish; the eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take 
a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in 
his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten 
booty silently away to the woods"^.''^ 
With an account of an Asiatic eagle of large size, the . 
Nisaetns grandis of Hodgson, or large Hawk Eagle, a spe- 
* American Ornithology, vol. i. pp. 23, 24, (edition in ' Constable's Mis- 
ceUanv'). 
