THE BALD-EAGLE. 
425 
started up, and saw her baby thrown down and dragged several 
feet by a Bald Eagle, when happily the infant's dress gave way, 
and the bird rose, carrying off a fragment of it in his talons. The 
length of these birds is three feet ; extent of Avings, seven feet. 
The female, as usual with birds of prey, is the largest and most 
daring. They are not at all bald, as their name would imply, 
but, in fact, hoary-headed : the plumage of the whole head and 
neck being white ; the tail and wing-coverts are also white ; the 
rest of the plumage is chiefly brown ; the legs and bill are of a 
golden yellow. 
There is another gigantic fishing Eagle, called the Washington 
Eagle, a very rare bird, described by Mr. Audubon as decidedly 
larger ; its length is three feet seven inches ; extent of wings, ten 
feet two inches. They build upon the rocks along the Upper 
Mississippi. 
Long may the Bald Eagle continue to be the national emblem 
of a vigorous and a united people, as long as the bird soars over 
the broad land ! It must prove a dark hour for the country when 
either wing is maimed. There are always, in every community, 
in public as in private life, those who are not afraid to assume a 
character Avhich the wise man has declared " an abomination " in 
the sight of their God; yes, this character "doth the Lord hate" 
— "he that soweth discord among brethren." 
If, in the subject of a monarchy, loyalty to the sovereign be a 
just and a generous sentiment, — and most assuredly it is so, — still 
more noble in character is the nature of that loyalty which has 
for object a sacred bond, uniting in one family the beating hearts, 
the active spirits, the intelligent minds of millions of men ; breth- 
ren in blood and in faith ! 
