Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-19
THE EAGLE AT HIS BEST.
Boasted Bird of Freedom Gets Hfa living by the Methods of 2
 HiEhwayman.

feet life in the woods has upon char- acter.'' said Amasa Clark, the oldest guide on the Allagash, according co the New York Sun, you should watch those white-headed eagles out there on the cliff.
 Most of you have seen what do- nothing thing an eagle is by the sea- shore. He sits on limb of 9 big tree all day and never moves until he sees an industrious fish hawk dive down and make capture, when the eagle SHOWS enough life to put chase to the hawH and scare him until he drops the nsn. when the eagle takes it away ana eats it, as if hawks were built for nothlne except to provide dinners for idle ana overbearing eagles.
 sTt's my private opinion, which I'm making public now for the first tlmes that if it were not for the fish hawk every eagle which lives along the ocean would starve to death inside of year
 'sBut move this same eagle 200 miles inland and put him and his wife up on the side of tall mountain where they can have good chance to see what IS going on and the bird undergoes a great change He stops watching to ind out what the fish hawks are going to do and gets right down to doing work on his own hook The change in his looks is as wonderful as in his habits of life.
 stNo sooner does he move inland than he pays more attention to his personal appearance, spending hours in cleaning up his feathers and preening himself to look smart and wide awake, the way all big birds should do.-
 Best of all, the inland eagle not only captures his own food, but he displays much ski1l-not to call it reason-in se- lecting and taking what he wants to eat Last week saw pair of eagles kill deer on Mt Heresy that gave me 3 lesson in trailing and overriding big game.
 After the Allagash river sweeps around the base of the mountain it wid- ems out into big swamp or lagoon, where the deer like to stay during warm weather, the water keeping them cool and warding off the flies, which are very annoying in summer.
 Toward night when the brown mos quitoes come out in force, they drive the deer from the wet grounds to the windy hiI1tops, where they stay for hours at time chewing their cuds and having good time.
 ''One evening just before sundown I saw this pair of eagles circling the peak where the deer were lying, as 1t they were trying to count how many there were in the herd.
 All at once the male eagle, who had the whiter head, made a sWoop into the herd, which scattered the deer in all di- rections. Then I saw that the eagle had fixed his talons into the back of one lively doe and was hanging on for all he was worth. As soon as the doe tried to run in any direction except toward the cliff, the old she eagle would come in and head her off by peckipg her eyes, thus compelling the doe to run in the other direction.
 tThis game was kept up for a quarter of an hour or longer and though could not see all that was going on, am convinced that the femaleseag1e at last blinded the doe, for, after running about without any purpose for a few min utes she headed for the ledge and ran right off over the edge of the cliff, which is more than 300 feet high at that place. On the way down the male eagle un- hooked his claws and let the. doe com plete the journey alone,
 Next day when I went to the side of ing themselves upon the venison from a fat doe that had both of her eyes pecked out, and I was willing to bet my rife against plug of tobacco that 1t was the same doe which I saw driven over the big precipice.
 Tn all the pictures that are printed of eagles, the birds are drawn holding rabbits in their claws, which seems very funny to us who live up here in the woods, and who know that no rabbit ever comes out in the daytime, when eagles are abroad, for an eagle is as blind at night as hen is, and goes to roost before it is dark
 If eagles cannot get any rabbits to eat they make up for the lack by catching every hedgehog they can find. The way the eagle does the job is dn- teresting too.
 Finding hedgehog browsing among the clover of the meadows, he swoops down upon the animal, and, digging his talons into the nose ofthe beast, ,snatches 1t aloft in the air before any defense can be made @Once removed from the ground, the poor hedgehog has no defense, for hang ing as it does, it cannot reach up to strike with it's armed tail, so it just wriggles about and gnashes it's teeth while the bird sails higher and higher. until they come over an exposed ledge. when the eagle lets go and the hedge hog drops to the hard rocks and is killed.
 s'Then the eagle turns his prey over on it's back, and, attacking the under side, which is fire from spines, has hearty meal upon the flesh that no other bird or beast of prey has the courage to take.''
 How Long MoSqu14ees Live.
 It Is not known just how long mos