OUR HOME BIRDS. 
231 
but the little fellow was just as brave and just as 
much in earnest as if he had handled his papa’s 
Minie rifle, and his sisters looked upon him with 
great pride and affection as their valiant knight 
and champion. 
“ The bald eagle is fond of fish, but he likes better 
to steal the booty of other birds than to catch it for 
himself. The fish-hawk is one of his most frequent 
victims in this respect ; and this is the way he 
manages it : ‘ Perched on the limb of some gigantic 
tree that commands a wide view of the neighboring 
shore and ocean, he seems calmly to overlook the 
motions of all the feathered tribes that disport them- 
selves below, until high over all the others hovers a 
bird that attracts his immediate 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. His eye kindles at the 
sight, and, balancing himself with half-opened wings 
on the branch, he watches the result. 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 ardor, 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 ex- 
