eagle. 155 
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 surge foam around. At this moment the 
eager looks of the Eagle are all ardour ; 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 exultation. These 
are the signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives 
chase, and soon gains on the fish-hawk ; each exerts his utmost to 
mount above the other, displaying in the rencontre the most elegant 
and sublime aerial evolutions. The unincumbered Eagle raj)idly ad- 
vances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a 
sudden scream probably of despair and honest execration, the latter 
drops his fish ; the eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a 
more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp 
ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to 
the woods. 
“ These predatory attacks and defensive manoeuvres of the Eagle and 
fish-hawk, are matters of daily observation along the whole of our sea 
board, from Georgia to New England, and frequently excite great 
interest in the spectators. Sympathy, however, on this as on most 
other occasions, generally sides with the honest and laborious sufferer, 
in opposition to the attacks of power, injustice, and rapacity, — qualities 
for which our hero is so generally notorious, and which, in his superior, 
man, are equally detestable. As for the feelings of the poor fish, they 
seem altogether out of the question. When driven, as he sometimes is, 
by the combined courage and perseverance of the fish hawks from their 
neighbourhood, and forced to hunt for himself, he retires more inland, 
in search of young pigs, of which he destroys great numbers. In the 
lower part of Virginia and North Carolina, where the inhabitants raise 
vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind are very general 
against him. He also destroys young lambs in the early part of spring; 
and will sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their eyes. 
“ In corroboration of the remarks I have myself made on the man- 
ners of the Bald Eagle, many accounts have reached me from various 
persons of respectability, living on or near our sea coast ; the substance 
of all these I shall endeavour to incorporate with the present account. 
‘‘ Mr. John L. Gardiner, who resides on an island of three thousand 
acres, about three miles from the eastern point of Long Island, from 
which it is separated by Gardiner’s Bay, and who has consequently 
many opportunities of observing the habits of these birds, has favored 
me with a number of interesting particulars on this subject ; for which 
I beg leave thus publicly to return my grateful acknowledgment. 
