Show Eagle Tackles unusual prey A D miller of dry valley who was an eye witness furnishes us with this unusual description of the audacity of the bird chosen as the united states of americas emblem perhaps it was because of this audacious disposition that the eagle was chosen to adorn many of our coins and to represent the courage and daring of this the greatest nation of the earth here is A Ds D s account in his own language it was my exceptional fortune recently to witness an incident in the blue mountains of san ju juan an county such as is seldom seen by any human eye and which I 1 would have considered unbelievable had I 1 merely heard or read of it it furnishes another evidence to prove that truth is stranger than chhn fiction we have all heard of eagles carrying away small animals such as jackrabbits jack rabbits and lambs but I 1 was totally unprepared for the sight of an eagle closely pursuing a doe deer for fully a mile down the mountain side the incident was seen by two groups some of whom heard the doe cry as it ran down the precipitous mountain in n long leaps the eagle would swoop then level off and swoop again with apparent intent to kill the doe finally reached the shelter of an aspen grove and the eagle abandoned the chase one of the spectators believed that the deer had approached aioo too near to the eagles nest and the bird was merely trying to frighten the animal away in which it was entirely successful if this was its only purpose but to me it appeared to be in deadly earnest and impelled by the lust for flesh A blue mountain miner who witnessed the chase recalled aday a day when he and a companion were near the summit of one of the peaks with a pack train on their way to do assessment work on a claim an eagle flew just over their immediate vicinity and indulged in a series of such gyration just over their heads that the miners thought perhaps the bird was seriously considering an attack upon the whole pack train three revolver shots frightened the eagle away |