434 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
arrests all his attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspen¬ 
sion in the air, he knows him to be the fish haw r k (Pandion halicetus ,) 
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 surge foam 
around. At this moment 
the eager looks of the eagle 
are all ardor, and level¬ 
ling his neck for flight, 
he sees the fish hawL once 
more emerge, struggling 
with his prey, and mount¬ 
ing in the air with screams 
of exultation. These are 
the signal for our hero, 
w T ho, launching into the air, 
instantly gives chase, and 
soon gains on the fish hawk; 
each exerts his utmost 
to mount above the other, 
displaying in the rencon¬ 
tre the most elegant and 
sublime aerial evolutions. 
The unincumbered eagle 
rapidly advances, and is just 
on the point of reaching 
his opponent, when with a 
sudden scream, probably of 
despair and honest execra¬ 
tion, the latter drops his 
fish ; the eagle, poising him¬ 
self for a moment as if to 
take a more certain aim, 
descends like a whirlwind, 
snatches it in his grasp 
ere it reaches the water, and 
bears his ill-gotten booty 
silently aw^ay to the w^oods. 
“ These predatory attacks 
A fight with AN eagle. and defensive manoeuvres 
of the eagle and fish-hawL 
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^ Sym¬ 
pathy, however, on this as on most other occasions, generally sides with the 
honest and laborious sufferer, in opposition to the attacks of powder, injustice 
