. The naturalist's library; containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; . e air,where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. At once from this sublime aerial flight he descends like a perpendiculartorrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the cer-tainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges ; bearing in his claws hisstruggling prey, which he always carries head foremost; and having risena few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do,and directs his heavy, labori
. The naturalist's library; containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles and insects; . e air,where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. At once from this sublime aerial flight he descends like a perpendiculartorrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the cer-tainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges ; bearing in his claws hisstruggling prey, which he always carries head foremost; and having risena few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do,and directs his heavy, laborious course directly for land. A shad was oncetaken from a fish-hawk near Great Egg harbor, on which he had begun toregale himself, the remainder of which weighed six pounds. Another hawkat the same place was seen with a flounder in his grasp, which struggledand shook him so that he dropped it on the shore. The flounder waspicked up, and served a whole family for dinner. It is singular that thehawk never descends to pick up a fish which he happens to drop either onthe land or on the water. AVES—EAGLE. 441 THE GREAT SEA EAGLE,1. Called the erne in Scotland, is usually above three feet in length, and thewings, when expanded, measure seven or eight feet. The bill, yellow atthe base, is generally of a bluish black color towards the extremity. Ablackish brown, deeper above than beneath, is the common hue of the bird,which is relieved by numerous white spots on the breast and under his wings the larger feathers are nearly black, but those of the tail havea less deep tinge. It is found in the northern regions of both continents,even to the very margin of the polar ice, and in Asia as far to the south asthe Caspian Sea. Fishing is the sea eagles regular means of subsistence,but, on occasion, it will pick up dead fish on the beach, and attack seals andland animals. Few exhibitions in nature, says the author of the BritishNaturalist, are finer than the fishing of this powerful
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
