I have seen him dive a dozen times
or more into the water before bringing up his prey. He sails around and
around in the air; at last fixing his eyes upon a fish, he swoops down,
making the water splash around him. His feet are large and powerful,
and he arranges his long toes in the form of a scoop as he plunges into
the river; this scoop is his fishing-tackle with which he brings up his
finny food.
I think I should not like to be an osprey, for he seems to have such a
hard time to get a living, and yet he is an honest, well-disposed
laborer. After he has succeeded in catching a fish, a bald eagle often
swoops down from some tall tree, where he has been watching him, and by
main force compels this honest fisher to give up his hard-won prey. The
eagle is considerably larger than his victim, being about three feet in
length, while the osprey is only about two feet.
It is quite a grand sight to see these two large birds wheeling through
the air--the osprey trying to elude the eagle, diving first one way and
then another, until at last, when he sees the unencumbered eagle must
overpower him, in a fit of desperation he lets the fish drop, and the
eagle catches it before it reaches the water, and carries it to some
retired spot where he devours it.
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