Next to the vultures come the eagles, of which two examples may be mentioned--the white-headed, or bald eagle and the golden eagle, or war-eagle as the Indians called it. Both are known in various local varieties in all parts of the world, and both have been regarded with admiration by brave men in all ages. The bald eagle is the symbol of the United States; and its cousin, the white-tailed, is to be seen along all the coasts of the Old World except the arctic. The American eagle frequents the shores of both oceans, and of our great lakes and rivers, because its favorite food is fish, which it obtains mainly by robbing the industrious fish-hawks. Of a nobler character, according to our human ideas, is the golden eagle, and it is also larger, the female--which, in birds of prey, usually exceeds her mate in size--sometimes measuring nearly three feet in length and eight or nine feet across her outspread wings. This magnificent bird may still frequently be seen in the remoter and more mountainous parts of both continents, but in America is extremely rare east of the Rocky Mountains and Lake Superior, and in Europe west of the Swiss and German Alps. This was the eagle which by its bold mien so impressed the early conquerors of Italy that they chose it to represent them on their coins and standards, so that it came to be known throughout a subject world as the Roman Eagle; and its image has descended to the arms of Italy, Austria, Germany, Russia, and other nations. The aerie, or nesting-place, of these grand birds is much the same in both kinds--a rude heap of sticks sufficiently hollowed on the summit to hold the brown-blotched eggs, and placed upon a ledge of rocks, or perhaps in the top of some huge tree. It may serve the purpose of a home for many years in succession. Eagles have been recorded on both sides of the Atlantic as using the same aerie for nearly a century without interruption; and in such cases the structure often becomes of prodigious size. A nest found in Scotland was nine feet high, five feet across at the top, and twenty feet in width at the bottom; so that it was really as big as a good-sized haystack! Round this nest were the bones of between forty and fifty grouse, besides those of a number of lambs, rabbits, and hares, which had been brought there by the parent birds for the use of the young. Very often a ledge close to the aerie is used as a larder, where the old birds put their victims as soon as they are caught, and leave them until they are wanted. When they are hunting the two birds generally work together, one dashing in among bushes and low herbage, among which hares, partridges, or other animals are likely to be hiding, and the other lying in wait to pounce upon them as they rush out in alarm. THE OSPREY AND OTHER HAWKS