BALD EAGLE. 
25 
superior, man , are certainly detestable. As for the 
feeling-s of the poor fish, they seem altogether out of 
the question. 
When driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined 
courage and perseverance of the fish hawks from their 
neighbourhood, and forced to hunt for himself, he 
retires more inland, in search of young* pig's, of which 
he destroys great numbers. In the lower parts of 
Virginia and North Carolina, where the inhabitants raise 
vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind are 
very general against him. He also destroys young 
lambs in the early part of spring' ; and will sometimes 
attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their eyes. 
In corroboration of the remarks I have mj^self made 
on the manners of the bald eagle, many accounts have 
reached me from various persons of respectability, living 
on or near our sea coast : The substance of all these I 
shall endeavour to incorporate with the present account. 
Mr John L. Gardiner, who resides on an island of 
three thousand acres, about three miles from the eastern 
point of Long Island, from which it is separated by 
Gardiner’s Bay, and who has consequently many oppor- 
tunities of observing the habits of these birds, has 
favoured me with a number of interesting particulars 
on this subject ; for which I beg leave thus publicly 
to return my grateful acknow ledgment. 
“ The bald eagles,” says this gentleman, “ remain on 
this island during the whole w inter. They can be most 
easily discovered on evenings by their loud snoring 
while asleep on high oak trees ; and, when awake, 
their hearing seems to be nearly as good as their sight. 
I think I mentioned to you, that I had myself seen one 
flying with a lamb ten days old, and which it dropped 
on the ground from about ten or twelve feet high. 
The struggling of the lamb, more than its weight, 
prevented its carrying it away. My running, hallooing, 
and being very near, might prevent its completing its 
design. It had broke the back in the act of seizing 
it; and I was under the necessity of killing it outright 
to prevent its misery. The lamb’s dam seemed asto- 
