General Notes. 
59 
the Eagle the Coots all huddled together, remaining so during his rest, 
swimming about aimlessly and casting uneasy glances up in the direction 
of their enemy. The moment the Eagle lifted himself from his perch, 
the Coots seemed to press towards a common centre until they were 
packed so closely together that they had the appearance of a large black 
mantle upon the water; they remained in this position until the Eagle 
made his first swoop, when they arose as one bird, making a great noise 
with their wings, and disturbance with their feet which continued to 
touch the water for the first fifty or one hundred feet of their flight. This 
seemed to disconcert the Eagle who would rise in the air only to renew 
his attack with great vigor. 
“These maneuvres were kept up, the Eagle repeating his attack with 
marvelous rapidity, until, in the excitement and hurry of flight, three or 
four Coots got separated from the main body ; this circumstance the Eagle 
was quick to discover and take advantage of ; it was now easy work to 
single out his victim, but usually long and hard to finally secure it. I 
have never seen him leave the field of battle, however, without a trophy 
of his prowess, though I have seen him so baffled in his first attempts to 
separate the birds, that he was compelled to seek his tree again to rest. 
“ On one occasion, after separating his bird from the flock, he spent 
some minutes in its capture — the Coot eluding him by diving; this fre- 
quent rebuff seemed to provoke the Eagle to such an extent that he finally 
followed it under the water — remaining some seconds— so long, indeed, 
that I thought him drowned; he finally appeared, however, with the bird 
in his talons, but so weak and exhausted that he could scarcely raise him- 
self above the water, and for the first thirty or forty yards of his flight his 
wings broke the surface of the water ; very slowly he made his wav to 
the nearest tree, where he alighted, on the lowest limb, to recover his 
spent strength. 
“One more incident: I had crept up on a small batch of Coots and 
discharged One barrel of my gun at them, killing one, and was about to 
start out for a boat to pick it up, when I was startled bv an Eagle swoop- 
ing down upon my dead bird; he had it in his talons before I could get 
my gun to shoulder, but I quickly discharged the contents of the other 
barrel at him, which had the effect of making him drop my bird and go 
screaming away; thinking he might return, I began to reload my gun, 
and had barely finished one barrel, when, sure enough, he made another 
attempt to steal my game ; in my haste I fired before he was within range, 
or I might have added him to my bag. I got my Coot. 
“I have also seen him chase the Fish Hawk, and force him to drop his 
fish which he immediately secured for himself. 
“ This, I think, will cover the extent of my own observations, though I 
am credibly informed that he has been seen to capture squirrels, rabbits, 
and even chickens.” 
This last statement is confirmed by an account given me last spring by 
a resident in Nassau Co., Florida, on the St. Mary’s River, who complain- 
