EAGLE. 157 
Eag-le bearing- off a fragment of its frock, which being the only part 
seized, and giying 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 gormandising vultures, 
on the approach of this dignified personage, instantly disperse, and 
make way for their master, waiting his departure in sullen silence 
and at a respectful distance, on the adjacent trees. 
“ In one of those partial migrations of tree squirrels that some- 
times take place in our western forests, many thousands of them 
were drowned in attempting to cross the Ohio ; and at a certain place, 
not far from Wheeling, a prodigious number of their dead bodies 
were floated to the shore by an eddy. Here the vultures assembled 
in great force, and had regaled themselves for some time, when a 
Bald Eagle made his appearance, and took sole possession of the 
premises, keeping the whole vultures at their proper distance for 
several days. He has also been seen navigating the same river on a 
floating carrion, though scarcely raised above the surface of the water, 
and tugging at the carcase, regardless of snags, sawyers, planters, or 
shallows. He sometimes carries his tyranny to great extremes against 
the vultures. In hard times, when food happens to be scarce, should 
he accidentally meet with one of those who has its craw crammed with 
carrion, he attacks it fiercely in the air ; the cowardly vulture instantly 
disgorges, and the delicious contents are snatched up by the Eagle 
before they reach the ground. 
“ The nest of this species is generally fixed on a very large and lofty 
tree, often in a swamp, or morass, and difficult to be ascended. On 
some noted tree of this description, generally a pine or cypress, the Bald 
Eagle often builds, year after year, for a long series of years. When 
both male and female have been shot from the nest, another pair have 
soon after taken possession. The nest is large, being added to and 
repaired every season, until it becomes a black prominent mass, observ- 
able at a considerable distance. It is formed of large sticks, sods, 
earthy rubbish, hay, moss, &c. Many have stated to me that the 
female lays first a single egg, and that, after having sat on it for some 
time, she lays another ; when the first is hatched, the warmth of that, 
it is pretended, hatches the other. Whether this be correct or not, I 
cannot determine, but a very respectable gentleman of Virginia assured 
