100 
WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 
gliding in easy circles over the high shores and mountainous, 
cliffs that tower above the Hudson and Susquehanna, he 
attracts the eye of the intelligent voyager, and adds great 
interest to the scenery. At the great .Cataract of Niagara, 
already mentioned, there rises from the gulf into which the 
Fall of the Horse-Shoe descends, a stupendous column of 
smoke, or spray, reaching to the heavens, and moving off in 
large, black clouds, according to the direction of the wind, 
forming a very striking and majestic appearance. The Eagles 
are here seen sailing about, sometimes losing themselves in 
this thick column, and again reappearing in another place, 
with such ease and elegance of motion, as renders the whole 
truly sublime. 
High o’er the watery uproar, silent seen, 
Sailing sedate in majesty serene, 
Now midst the pillar’d spray sublimely lost, 
And now, emerging, down the Rapids tost, 
Glides the Bald Eagle, gazing, calm and slow, 
O’er all the horrors of the scene below ; 
Intent alone to sate himself with blood, 
From the torn victims of the raging flood. 
The White-headed Eagle is three feet long, and seven feet 
in extent ; the bill is of a rich yellow ; cere, the same, slightly 
tinged with green ; mouth, flesh-coloured ; tip of the tongue, 
bluish black ; the head, chief part of the neck, vent, tail- 
coverts, and tail, are white in the perfect, or old birds of both 
sexes, — in those under three years of age these parts are of a 
gray brown ; the rest of the plumage is deep dark brown, each 
feather tipt with pale brown, lightest on the shoulder of the 
wing, and darkest towards its extremities. The conformation 
of the wing is admirably adapted for the support of so large a 
bird ; it measures two feet in breadth on the greater quills, 
and sixteen inches on the lesser ; the longest primaries are 
twenty inches in length, and upwards of one inch in circum- 
ference where they enter the skin ; the broadest secondaries 
are three inches in breadth across the vane ; the scapulars are 
