138 
FALCONIFORMES 
food is taken in various ways. The bird can dive for fish in true Osprey 
manner when necessary, but it usually picks them up dead from the shore 
or, where ospreys are common, takes the fish from them by force. To do 
this it pursues and badgers the successful fisher until it drops its prize, 
which by a lightning-like swoop is caught in the air and carried away in 
triumph. The Bald Eagle is, as a rule, hardly energetic enough to capture 
the quicker birds, but wounded or hurt ducks or game are eagerly picked 
up from the marshes. When opportunity offers the Bald Eagle eats offal 
without compunction. 
On the seacoasts, where unusual numbers of eagles occur, and different 
conditions prevail, certain reservations to these conclusions have to be 
made. The principal food of the Bald Eagle is undoubtedly fish when 
available, and most of it is waste and offal, but when the salmon are crossing 
the bars into the mouths of rivers, or making their way up the riffles to 
spawn, the eagles attack them energetically. It is not only the fish actually 
killed and eaten that cause uneasiness, but the more numerous ones that 
tear themselves away from the great talons and die without having 
accomplished the propagation of their species. These are at times con- 
siderable. When the west coast salmon die after spawning, the Bald 
Eagles gorge themselves on the stranded bodies, and are too well fed 
and lazy to attack living game. When this time of abundance is over, 
however, the eagles turn to more energetic methods of living, and water- 
fowl then may suffer severely. Once on the wing such birds are compar- 
atively immune from attack, for the Bald Eagle rarely, if ever, attacks from 
the wing, but, if surprised on the water and cut off from the air, the fate of 
birds even as large and hardy as geese and loons is practically sealed. 
The fowl dive at the swoop of the enemy, but in the clear coastal waters 
they cannot hide, and when they come to the surface again for air, there is 
the pursuing eagle awaiting them. A gasp is all that is allowed them 
before another dodge and dive. This goes on for but a few minutes when, 
exhausted and helpless, the victim is carried off, or towed in triumph to 
the shore. Where eagles are only ordinarily numerous, these attacks 
may be looked upon with equanimity as being of no serious harm to the 
species affected, but where, as on certain parts of the seacoast, dozens 
of eagles may be seen perched on commanding stubs overlooking the bird 
grounds, their attacks may be serious. At least, their constant harrying 
keeps the species in question so stirred up and nervous that they are unable 
to feed in peace, and linger no longer in the vicinity than is absolutely 
necessary. That eagles, even under these conditions, make serious inroads 
on the multitudes of wild fowl or fish of the coast, is questionable, but 
that they are always deserving of full protection can also be disputed. 
Any method designed to keep their numbers more in harmony with human 
demands should be applied and limited to the localities where they are an 
adverse economic influence, and where it does not destroy the picturesque 
features of the interior landscape, which the nature lover cannot well spare. 
Subfamily — Circinae. The Harriers 
Harriers 
The Harriers are long-winged, long-tailed birds of prey qf light, slender 
build and with partly feathered eye-ring somewhat suggestive of owls 
(Figure 203). Their habitat is the open meadow and marsh, and mice are 
their principal prey. We have but one species in North America. 
