File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14750501852).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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respect he is like the vulture.He searches the lonely beach for dead fish, or young sea-birds, and he scoursthe moors and pastures for what other prey he can find. He docs not, likemany of his tribe, rise high above his prey. He flies only a few hundredyards above it, and sweeps the hill-sides with outspread wings. Far out atsea the sailors watch him, and he has been seen to clutch at a fish thathappened to come to the surface. But this way of catching fish is now and then fatal to him. The fish, ifit is a large one, contrives to pull the eagle down under water, and then he isdrowned. Should he escape such a fate, he keeps fast hold of the fish, and,half opening his wings, brings it to the shore. Then he takes care to get his claws at liberty, and to dry his feathers, sothat he can fly at a moments notice; after which he quietly begins his repast. THE SEA EAGLE. The eagle does not despise the bank of a river or a lake, for here he cc.nnow and then feed delicately on salmon and trout.
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THE SEA EAGLE. He often sees the otter catching a fish, and he waits until the creature issatisfied, and takes what is left. For his courage is not quite equal to his B STO-RIES ABOUT BIRDS. size and his strength, and he rarely attacks an animal larger than a hare,indeed, he has a touch of the vulture about him, and will eat dead creatureswith more relish than living prey. In order to escape from his greatest enemy—man—the eagle has re-treated to the wildest and most desolate part of the coast, and makes hisnest where scarce any living creature can reach it. His nest is of immensesize, and is made of sticks and heath and twigs and dead sea-weeds. Themother bird lays two eggs, of a pure white, with some pale red dots at thelarger end. The young birds are clothed with a greyish-coloured down, andare plentifully supplied with food. But as soon as they are old enough, theparent eagles drive them away. The shepherds and farmers in the neighbourhood have a great dislike tothe eagle, and

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