128 
THE EAGLE. 
on the shore, till its wings are quite covered with 
sand. It then rises again, and hovers 6ver its vic- 
tim. When close to it, it shakes its wings, and thus 
scatters the gravel and sand into the eyes of the ox, 
while it adds to the fright of the animal by blows 
with its powerful wings. The blinded animal be- 
comes stupified, and runs about quite raving, and, at 
length, 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 W ashington ; 
it is very rare, confining itself usually to lonely situa- 
tions, occasionally, however, 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 ; but, 
having been assured by a more experienced com- 
panion, 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 deter- 
mined 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 hours 
* Annals of Philosophy , Vol. I. 
