130 
THE EAGLE. 
with guns, and materials for ensuring success, and 
proceeded to post themselves, some at the foot and 
some at the top of the rock ; but all in vain. The 
Eagles had been beforehand, and proved too cunning 
for them. The young birds had disappeared, and 
they passed the whole day without seeing or hear- 
ing anything of either them or the old ones. It 
appeared from their observations, that the old ones 
had actually removed their young to fresh quarters, 
hut as they did not seem sufficiently grown to use 
their wings, how they could accomplish such a 
removal, was a mystery not to be solved. 
Two years afterwards, the same person was for- 
tunate enough to shoot one dead on the spot, as it 
sat upon a low tree, attracted, as was supposed, by 
the scent of some slaughtered hogs. The bird in 
this case seemed to be perfectly fearless, not only 
allowing the sportsman to approach within easy 
gun-shot distance, but looking at him all the time 
with an undaunted eye. 
Having had, since first seeing one of this species, 
other opportunities of observing their habits, he has 
given some very interesting details. In its flight it 
differs from another sort of Eagle for which it is often 
taken ; when looking after fish in the water below, 
it makes very wide circles, and when it sees one, it 
falls gradually in a circuitous, spiral manner, as if 
with an intention of checking any retreating move- 
ment of its prey. When within a few yards, how- 
ever, it darts down like a shot, and seldom misses 
its object. As it is so constantly exposed to the 
water, its feathers are provided with a greater portion 
of that oily substance common to many birds, and 
