120 
HAUNTS OF THE EAGLE. 
but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is 
generally poor Besides, he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, 
no bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of 
the district [reminding one of the way in which Drake and Frobisher, 
with their small but nimble barks, assailed the great heavy galleons of 
the Armada, and forced them to retreat]. He is, therefore, by no 
means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnatti of 
America." 
Even Audubon is unable to give a much more favourable account 
of him, though he vaunts him as a noble bird, well known through- 
out the civilized world, and extols his great strength, daring, and cool 
courage. To these qualities did he add a generous disposition towards 
others, he might be looked up to as a model of (republican) nobility ; 
but then he ever and anon displays " a ferocious, overbearing, and 
tyrannical temper." 
His favourite haunts are the neighbourhood of the sea, and the 
shores and cliffs of the great lakes and rivers of North America. He 
is found in considerable numbers at the Falls of Niagara. While 
feeding on the flesh of deer, beai's, squirrels, and other animals, he 
evinces a strong preference for fish ; and in procuring these, displays 
all the energy and daring of his disposition. Elevated on the high 
dead limb of some huge tree that overlooks the neio;hbourinof shore 
and wide expanse of rolling waters, he seems to survey with majestic 
indifference the movements of the various feathered tribes that pursue 
their busy avocations below : the snow-white gulls slowly winnowing 
the air ; the busy sand-pipers coursing along the beach ; trains of ducks 
oaring their way through the dark -green waves ; silent, watchful 
cranes, intent and wading; noisy crows; and all the winged multi- 
tudes that subsist through the bounty of the prolific ocean. High 
above all hovers one wliose action immediately^ arrests his whole 
attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in 
air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk settling over some devoted 
victim of the deep. At the sight liis dark eye lights up, and balancing 
himself, with half-opened wing, on the branch, he eagerly watches the 
result. Down, swift almost as a bolt from heaven, descends the rival 
