Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/487

428 I join him in a dozen strokes of the paddle. He is excited.

"Quiet, now," he says, being most unquiet; "do you see that tall gum tree on the very edge of the water a quarter of a mile away?"

"Yes."

"An eagle, a bald-headed eagle, do you hear? has just lighted in the top of that tree. We must have him. We will get as near as we can and start him up. If I miss him, you make sure of him."

We proceeded quietly toward the tree. Abeham, watching us, and scenting sport, had joined us. When within a hundred yards of the tree we saw the great bird standing on a high bough, a tall, gaunt, black body, with white head and tail. The intervening branches made it a risky shot, but when we had got fairly within range Moseley fired, and down came the bird head-first, as if plunging into the lake.

There was a fallen tree growing beneath, and he was caught in its branches about ten feet from the water. He hung heavily, his great curved yellow beak on his breast, his eyes closed, and his enormous talons extended helplessly. He seemed to be quite dead.

"Get him down, Abeham," said Moseley.