WIIITE-IIEADED EAGLE. 
37 
its carrying it away. My running, hallooing, and being very near, 
might prevent its completing its design. It had broke tlie back in the 
act of seizing it ; and I was under the necessity of killing it outright to 
prevent its misery. The lamb's dam seemed astonished to see its inno- 
cent offspring borne off into the air by a bird. 
"I was lately told," continues Mr. Gardiner, "by a man of truth, 
that he saw an Eagle rob a Hawk of its fish, and the Hawk seemed so 
enraged as to fly down at the Eagle, while the Eagle very deliberately, 
in the air, threw himself partly over on his back, and while he grasped 
with one foot the fish, extended the other to threaten or seize the Hawk. 
I have known several Hawks unite to attack the Eagle ; but never knew 
a single one to do it. The Eagle seems to regard the Hawks as the 
Hawks do the King-birds, only as teasing, troublesome fellows." 
From the same intelligent and obliging friend, I lately received a well 
preserved skin of the Bald Eagle, which, from its appearance, and the 
note that accompanied it, seems to have belonged to a very formidable 
individual. "It was shot," says Mr. Gardiner, "last winter, on this 
island, and weighed thirteen pounds, measured three feet in length, and 
seven from tip to tip of the expanded wings ; Avas extremely fierce-look- 
ing ; though wounded, would turn his back to no one ; fastened his claws 
into the head of a dog, and was with difficulty disengaged. I have rode 
on horseback within five or six rods of one, who, by his bold demeanor, 
raising his feathers, &c., seemed willing to dispute the ground with its 
owner. The crop of the present was full of mutton from my part-blood 
merinos ; and his intestines contained feathers, which he probably de- 
voured with a duck, or winter gull, as I observed an entire foot and leg 
of some water fowl. I had two killed j^i'evious to this which weighed 
ten pounds avoirdupois each." k 
The intrepidity of character, mentioned above, may be farther illus- 
trated by the following fact, which occurred a few years ago, near Great 
Egg Harbor, New Jersey. A woman Avho happened to be weeding in 
the garden, had set her child dom\ near, to amuse itself while she was 
at work ; when a sudden and extraordinary rushing soiind, and a scream 
from her child alarmed her, and starting up, she beheld the infant 
thrown down and dragged some few feet, and a large Bald Eagle bear- 
ing off a fragment of its frock, which being the only part seized, and 
giving way, providentially saved the life of the infant. 
The appetite of the Bald Eagle, though habituated to long fasting, is 
of the most voracious, and often the most indelicate kind. Fish, when 
he can obtain them, are preferred to all other fare. Young lambs and 
pigs are dainty morsels, and made free with on all favorable occasions. 
Ducks, geese, gulls, and other sea-fowl, are also seized with avidity. The 
most putrid carrion, when nothing better can be had, is acceptable ; and 
the collected groups of gormandizing Vultures, on the apijroach of this 
