es more inland, in search of young pigs, 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 myself 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
opportunities 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 acknowledgment.

"The bald eagles," says this gentleman, "remain on this island during
the whole winter. 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 astonished to
see its innocent offspring borne off in the air by a bird.

"I was lately told," continues Mr. Gardiner, "by a man of truth, that
he saw an eagle rob a hawk of its fish, and the hawk seemed so enraged
as to fly down at the eagle, while the eagle very deliberately, in the
air, threw himself partly over on his back, and, while he grasped with
one foot the fish, extended the other to threaten or seize the hawk. I
have known several hawks unite to attack the eagle; but never knew a
single one to do it. The eagle seems to regard the hawks as the hawks
do the kingbirds, only as teasing, troublesome fellows."

From the same intelligent and obliging fri