THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 
5 
claws; but if discovered before this can be effected, lie falls 
an easy prey to the first assailant. I knew a gentleman who, 
having seen an eagle entangled in this manner, attacked and 
killed him on his arrival on shore.” Macgillivray quotes a 
more recent account to tlie same effect, but evidently without 
placing much faith in it himself. In this same account, the 
theory is suggested that, as the fish often obtains the mastery, 
a too rapid increase in the number of eagles is thus effectually 
prevented ! The skate and halibut are the two species 
supposed to be usually selected, as they “bask upon the sur- 
face of the water;” but the fishermen assure me that they have 
never observed this habit in either. Indeed, it would be 
difficult for a fish unprovided with a swimming bladder to 
retain such a position without a very considerable amount of 
muscular exertion; and although certain of the skates have 
this habit, it must be remembered that they are not bottom 
feeders, and may have some other object in keeping at the 
surface than merely that of “sunning” themselves. We are 
also informed that the moment the shore is reached, the eagle 
begins to eat out its claws, but we are not told whether the 
fish (too heavy to be lifted from the water) is then carried 
high and dry upon the beach, or whether the fall of the tide 
is patiently awaited by the wet and shivering Tartar-catcher, 
nor how it is that the claws do not become hopelessly em- 
bedded and entangled in their prey. There seems but one 
way of accounting for the origin of this singular tradition, viz., 
that fish are seldom driven ashore except after a heavy gale 
of long continuance, when, all living creatures being forced to 
seek slielter, birds of prey are upon the verge of starvation by 
the time the sea brings them a supply of food. Then, availing 
themselves to the utmost of the opportunity, th^ become so 
gorged as to be almost incapable of flight, and even perhaps 
unable to escape a sudden assault with a stick. I have seen 
this in the case of ravens, hooded crows, and gulls; and 
whalers often speak of capturing gorged birds upon floating 
or stranded- carcases. From the supposition of an eagle 
