the nauseous contents of its craw, to snatch them up before they could reach the
ground *. Like many of the Vultures, it has the custom, after a full meal, of sitting
on its perch with its wings drooping down past its feet; and it often keeps its
wings half open, with its breast turned to the breeze, as if to cool its skin heated
by an abundant and stimulating repast. It takes the scaly objects of its pursuit by
pouncing on them with its claws; and for this purpose it haunts rapids and cascades,
where the fish, in the efforts they make to ascend the stream in the spawning
season, are more exposed to its attacks. Its superior strength also enables it to
turn the industry of the Osprey to account, by robbing it of its prey. The assaults
it makes on this active bird are described with peculiar animation and a strong
feeling of the beauties of Nature in the following extract from Wilson :—
“ This distinguished bird, as he is the most beautiful of his trihe in this part of
the world, and the adopted emblem of our country, is entitled to particular notice.
He has long been known to naturalists, being common to both continents and
occasionally°met with from a very high northern latitude to the borders of the
torrid zone. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally
on the produce of the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of flight capable of
outstripping even the tempests themselves ; unawed by any thing but man ; and
from the ethereal heights to which he soars looking abroad, at one glance, on an
immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him, he
appears indifferent to the little localities of change of seasons, as in a few minutes
he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the
atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold, and from thence descend at will to the
torrid or the arctic regions of the earth. He is, therefore, found at all seasons in
the countries he inhabits, but prefers such places as have been mentioned above,
from the great partiality he has for fish. In procuring these he displays in a
singular manner the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative,
daring, and tyrannical,—attributes not exerted but on particular occasions,
but, when put forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the high dead limb
of some gigantic tree, that commands a wide view of the neighbouring shore and
ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes
that pursue their busy avocations below : the snow-white Gulls, slowly winnowing
the air ; the busy Tringte, 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 liq uid
magazine of nature.
W il s o n , iv., p. 89.
• “High over all these hovers one whose action instantly arrests all his attention.
By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in the 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 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,
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 these rencontres
the most sublime aerial evolutions. The unencumbered 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
whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten
booty silently away to the woods.”
This vivid and highly poetical passage may be contrasted with the prosaic,
though didactic notice of the same bird, by a great political sage.
“ For my own part,” says Franklin, .“ I wish the Bald Eagle had not been
chosen as the representative of our country; heisa bird of a bad moral character;
he does not get his living honestly: you may have seen him perched on some dead
tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the Fishing-
hawk ; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to
his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him,
and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good case, but,
like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor,
and often very lousy. Besides,: he is a rank coward; the little King-bird, not
bigger than a Sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of the district.
He is, therefore, by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati
of America, who have driven all the King-birds from our country ; though exactly
fit for that order of knights whom the French call Chevaliers d’lndustrie. I am,
on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as the Bald Eagle,
but looks more like a Turkey.”
The White-headed Eagle builds a rude nest of sticks, coarsely lined with hay,
on the ledge of some inaccessible rock, generally overhanging a rapid, or on the
D