24 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
The principal food of the Bald Eagle is fish ; and though he 
possesses every requisite of alertness and keenness of vision 
for securing his prey, it is seldom that he obtains it by any 
other means than stratagem and rapine. For this habitual 
daring purpose he is often seen perching upon the naked 
limb of some lofty tree which commands an extensive view of 
the ocean. In this attitude of expectation he heedlessly sur- 
veys the active employment of the feathered throng, which 
course along the wavy strand, or explore the watery deep with 
beating wing, until from afar he attentively scans the motions 
of his provider, the ample-winged and hovering Osprey. At 
length the watery prey is espied, and the feathered fisher de- 
scends like a falling rock ; cleaving the wave, he now bears his 
struggling victim from the deep, and mounting in the air, 
utters an exulting scream. At this signal the Eagle pirate 
gives chase to the fortunate fisher, and soaring above him, by 
threatening attitudes obliges him to relinquish his prey; the 
Eagle, now poising for a surer aim, descends like an arrow, 
and snatching his booty before it arrives at the water, retires 
to the woods to consume it at leisure. These perpetual dep- 
redations on the industrious Osprey sometimes arouse him to 
seek for vengeance, and several occasionally unite to banish 
their tyrannical invader. When greatly pressed by hunger, the 
Bald Eagle has sometimes been observed to attack the Vul- 
ture in the air, obliging him to disgorge the carrion in his 
craw, which he snatches up before it reaches the ground. He 
is sometimes seen also to drive away the Vultures, and feed 
voraciously on their carrion. Besides fish, he preys upon 
Ducks, Geese, Gulls, and other sea-fowl ; and when the re- 
sources of the ocean diminish, or fail from any cause, par- 
ticularly on the southern migration of the Osprey, his inland 
depredations arc soon notorious, young lambs, piigs, fawns, and 
even deer often becoming his prey. So indiscriminate in- 
deed is the fierce appetite of this bold bird that instances are 
credibly related of their carrying away infants. An attempt of 
this kind, according to Wilson, was made upon a child lying 
by its mother as she was weeding a garden at Great Egg- 
