THE EAGLE. 
109 
stantly exposed to the water, its feathers are provided with a 
greater portion of that oily substance common to many birds, 
and they shine as if covered with a thin coating of clear gum. 
An anecdote is related by Dr. Richardson,^ who accompanied 
that enterprising traveller, Sir John Franklin, as current on 
the plains of Saskatchewan in North America, of a half-bred 
Indian, who was vaunting his prowess before a hand of his 
countrymen, and wishing to impress them with a belief of his 
supernatural power. In the midst of his harangue, an Eagle 
was observed suspended as it were in the air directly over his 
head; upon which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which 
glistened brightly in the sun, he called upon the royal bird 
to come down. To his own amazement, no less than to the 
consternation of the surrounding Indians, the Eagle seemed 
to obey the charm, for instantly shooting down with the 
velocity of an arrow, it impaled itself on the point of his 
weapon. 
Fierce and savage as these birds usually are, they notwith- 
standing appear in some instances to lay aside these habits, 
and manifest a kind and protecting disposition, particularly 
towards little birds. Thus it has been observed that an 
African Eagle (. Falco halbescens), though it will suffer no 
bird of any size to come near its haunt, will nevertheless 
permit small ones not only to reside near it, hut even to perch 
upon its nest without offering them any violence, and still 
more, will protect them against the attack of other rapacious 
birds which might be disposed to devour them. The Osprey, 
or Fishing Eagle of North America {Falco halicctus ), allows 
the Grakle, or New England Jackdaw, as it is termed, to take 
the same liberty, these birds building their nests among the 
loose sticks forming the base of the Eagle’s nest, apparently 
neither dreading nor inconvenienced by the bird of prey 
which rears its young above them.f 
However cunning and sagacious we have seen them to be 
in their modes of providing for their own wants, and entrap- 
ping other birds and animals, they are occasionally overreached 
* Richardson’s Fauna Americana . 
t King’s Narrative , vol. ii., p. 217. 
