THE EAGLE. 
j or 
falls down wholly exhausted ; or, like the deer in the Shiant 
Islands, dashes itself to death by falling over some cliff ; when 
the Eagle mangles undisturbed the fruits of its victory. # 
There is a remarkably fine Eagle in North America, called 
the great Sea Eagle, or Bird of Washington : it is very rare, 
confining itself usually to lonely situations, occasionally, how- 
ever, following the hunters, to feed on the entrails of the 
animals they kill, when excluded by ice from its favourite 
water-haunts, where in open weather it dives for fish. 
A naturalist, who was extremely anxious to meet with one, 
had long laboured in vain, when one day, as he was engaged 
in collecting cray-fish, near the Ohio, a large river in North 
America, he chanced to observe on the rocks, which at that 
place were nearly perpendicular, a quantity of white droppings, 
which led him to conclude that Owls resorted thither ; hut, 
having been assured by a more experienced companion, that 
they must have fallen from a nest of one of their long-looked- 
for Birds of Washington, and that the old ones caught fish 
on the river, he determined to watch for them, and in high 
expectation seated himself, with his friend, about a hundred 
yards from the foot of the rock. For two long horns he 
waited with great impatience and curiosity, when the approach 
of the old Eagles was announced by loud hissings, which was 
soon perceived to he uttered by two young ones crawling from 
the extremity of their hole to receive a fine fish presented by 
the parent, as it held itself to the projecting rock, something 
after the manner of a House Swallow, its tail spread out, and 
its wings partly so. That they might not he observed, or 
frighten the birds away, they crouched down, and kept perfect 
silence, not whispering a single word. In a few minutes the 
other parent joined its mate : it also had brought a fish, hut 
being not so hold, or more suspicious, before it ventured to 
alight, it glanced its quick and piercing eye around, and in- 
stantly catching sight of the spectators, dropped the prey, and 
with a loud shriek communicated its alarm to the other, 
which, loosening its hold, hovered over their heads, keeping 
up a sort of growling threatening cry of intimidation. 
* Annals of Philosophy, vol. i. 
