News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-11-27
A FIGHT WITH AN EAGLE.
LEWIS WILLIAMS'S EXPERIENCE
WITH THE BIRD IN THE NOUN
TAHNS.

II I1NIl1 w ILL A1A' hlLs
LEWIS WILLIAMS's EXPERIENCE
WITH THE BIRD IN THE NOUN
TAINS.
| He Sets n Trap to Catch n Fox but the
! Euaie Carries 1t On-Battle With the
Crows.
Lewis Williams, who lives in an
isolated spot on the Preston Mountains,
Pennsylvania, having set trap to cap
ture a fox which he had reason to
believe was carrying away his chickens,
went out to look at it, and found it gone.
! The trap had been chained to a small
stake in the ground, and this had been
pulled up and was missing with the trap
and chain. Supposing tnat the fox had
been caught in the trap and had escaped
| with it, Williams hunted about in the
woods for some trace Of i but could find
none. As he was returning home he
heard a sudden and great commotion
among a flock of crows in a piece of
house. The crows were cawing furiously
and were circling around above the tree
!ops in one particular spot, and occa-
sionally darted about through the trees.
Williams walked over toward the woods,
and as he approached the crows in
creased their hubbub. When he arrived
within gunshot they withdrew to more
distant part of the woods but kept up
their noise. Williams had just entered
the edge of the woods when he heard the
rattling of chain, and simultaneously a
very large bird strutted out from
behind tree, dragging the missing trap,
chain, and stake. The jaws of the trap
were fastened to one leg of the bird,
which was bald eagle of the largest
size. The eagle few from the ground
and was rising with difficulty toward the
top of tall dead tree, when Williams
fred at it. The charge took effect in
one of the eagles wings and it fell to
the ground. Thinking to capture the
eagle alive, Williams approached IT, but,
in spite of its crippled wing and the
burden of the trap on its leg, the bird
flew at him and attacked him with such
fury that he turned and fled from the
woods. Hurrying back home, Williams,
without saying anything to others, pro-
cured a stout rope and large feed bag.
On his way back to the woods he noticed
that the crows which had attracted his
attention TO the spot in the first place
were lowering over the place where
he had left the eagle, and from their
peculiar cry and frantic actions he
inferred that something unusual had
occurred during his absence. The crows,
knowing by the wonderful instinct they
possess that the eagle was wounded, and
hating as they do all large birds, had
swooped down on the eagle and attacked
it in its crippled condition, This attack
had been disastrous to the crows, for
when Williams again reached the spot
three lay dead near the enraged eagle
and several others We're lrnssiusr them
selves away out of its reach, utterlng
the sharp, gutteral cry which they only
utter when wounded or in trouble.
The eagle no sooner saw Williams ap-
preaching than it rushed at him with
all the force at its command, hampered
and crippled as it was, and forced the
fighting at once. Williams hai made
moose in one end of the rope he carried,
and when the eagle flew at him he waited
until it was almost upon him and then
quickly threw the moose over the birds
head and it slipped down around its
wings, but it pulled the rope taut in its
efforts to get at its enemy. As it stood
thus straining at the rope Williams sue
ceeded in slipping the bag down over
its head. He then clasped the bird |
around the body. Although now blinded
and crippled and pinioned and doubly
crippled, the eagle was still unconqnered.
As Williams stood with his arms around
the great body of the bird, endeavoring
to secure the mouth of the bag around
It's legs, the eagle suddenly sprang
against him and striking him in the
stomach with one free talon, with one |
fierce downward stroke ripped his cloth
ing from him and tore the skin from the |
flesh in long strip clear to the waist.
Williams quickly released the bird, and
made haste to reach his house, suppos-
ing that he was terribly injured. Two |
men who were thrashing buckwheat for
him were then informed Of the presence
of the eagle in the woods, and they went
to the spot and succeeded in overpower-
il. 1t was brought to Williamss and
tied to post in the barn. the trap being
removed from its leg. The eagle meas
ureJ eight feet from tip to tip OF Its
wiz gs, and stands nearly four feet high. |
,Ehese birds still nest in the wild and
rocky elevations in that region, where it
is barely possible for human beings to
gain access. They frequently visit the
sheep pastures of the farm neighbor-
hoods and the poultry yards. In defend
ing her chickens against one OF the bold
marauders one day last summer, not far
from the Williams farm, Mrs. Jane Ur-
ban was compelled to fgsrt.-it for nearly
an hour, during which time it tore her
clothing from her and lacerated her |
flesh terribly with its beak and talons.