24 
FALCO LEUCOCEPHALUS. 
busy tringse coursing- along- the sands ; trains of ducks 
streaming- over the surface ; silent and watchful cranes, 
intent and wading ; clamorous crows ; and all the winged 
multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid 
magazine of nature. High over all these hovers one, 
whose action instantly arrests his whole attention. By his 
wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, 
he knows him to be the fish hawk, settling over some 
devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the 
sight, and, balancing himself, with half opened wings, 
on the branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as 
an arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of 
his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as 
it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam 
around ! At this moment, the eager looks of the eagle 
are all ardour; and, levelling his neck for flight, he 
sees the fish hawk once more emerge, struggling’ with 
his prey, and mounting in the air with screams of 
exultation. These are the signal for our hero, who, 
lanching into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon 
gains on the fish hawk ; each exerts his utmost to mount 
above the other, displaying in these rencontres the most 
elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unencum- 
bered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of 
reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, 
probably of despair and honest execration, the latter 
drops his fish : the eagle, poising himself for a moment, 
as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirl- 
wind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, 
and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the 
woods. 
These predatory attacks and defensive manoeuvres 
of the eagle and the fish hawk, are matters of daily 
observation along the whole of our sea board, from 
Georgia to New England, and frequently excite great 
interest in the spectators. Sympathy, however, on this 
as on most other occasions, generally sides with the 
honest and laborious sufferer, in opposition to the attacks 
of power, injustice, and rapacity, qualities for which 
our hero is so generally notorious, and which, in his 
