76 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
An attempt of this kind, according to Wilson, was made 
upon a child lying by its mother as she was weeding a 
garden at Great Egg-Harbour in New Jersey ; but the 
garment seized upon by the Eagle giving w T ay at the 
instant of the attempt, the life of the child was spared. 
I have heard of another instance said to have happened 
at Petersburgh in Georgia, near the Savannah river, 
where an infant, sleeping in the shade near the house, 
was seized and carried to the eyry near the edge of a 
swamp 5 miles distant, and when found, almost imme- 
diately, the child was dead. The story of the Eagle and 
child, in “ The history of the house of Stanley/’ now the 
crest of that family, shows the credibility of the exploit, 
as supposed to have been effected by the White-tailed 
Eagle, so nearly related to the present. Indeed, about 
the year 1745, some Scotch reapers, accompanied by the 
wife of one of them with an infant, repaired to an island 
in Loch Lomond ; the mother laid down her child in the 
shade at no great distance from her, and while she was bu- 
sily engaged in labor, an Eagle of this kind suddenly darted 
upon the infant, and immediately bore it away to its rocky 
eyry on the summit of Ben Lomond. The alarm of this 
shocking event was soon spread ; and a considerable 
party, hurrying to the rescue, fortunately succeeded in 
recovering the child alive. 
The Bald Eagle, like most of the large species, takes 
wide circuits in its flight and soars at great heights. 
In these sublime attitudes he may often be seen hovering 
over water-falls and lofty cataracts, particularly that of 
the famous Niagara, where he watches for the fate of 
those unfortunate fish and other animals that are destroy- 
ed in the descent of the tumultuous waters. 
In the adult , at the age of 3 years , all the plumage of the body 
and of the wings is of a deep and very lively brown or chocolate 
