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29.
i_fl those days.

	I catched the only grey eagle that was ever seen ‘round here. They was a bunoh of us boys out rabbit hunti& one day one fall. Tho dogs got after a rabbit an‘ chased it across a hohe r out o ‚ range • I had. the only gun in the crowd an‘ was right after that rabbit. The dogs run over the track an‘ could seo ‘em over on the hillside jess sottin‘ still. ~ll at once I seen a big bird I taken it to be a hawk, fold its wings like a man‘d foLf his arms ‘round his body, and drop straight down ou the rabbit. But the rabbit saw i-t; too for when the eagle got there he was ten feet up the hillside. The bird hit, “boom“, jest like that • But the rč.bhit was goin‘ ov‘er the hill an‘ the eagle musta saw him for he riz an‘ flew in that direction.

	‘You boys stay back, I‘ll kill that hawk. That‘s the biggest hawk I ever seen, ‚ I told them. When I got to the top of the ridge I seen him sotti& in the top uv a big tree. The boys stayed where I told them and I slipped along till I got cost enough to shoot him. He was either wätohin‘ the rabbit or didn‘t thin.k I was watchin‘ him for I got pritty close before he started to fly. Jess as he opened his wings I let him have it with my old muzzle laader shotgun. Down he come makin‘ as much nois e as a whole flook o ‚ hawks oughta made. lie ~ alive ~then I got to him an‘ made right at me, strikin‘ with his claws an‘ bill. The dogs come when the heard the shot au‘ he whipped ‘era off. Every time he struok one of ‘em he (the dog) would holier like he‘d been speared. The other boys wanted to kill it but I gotta a long pole an‘ got it on hii~ so‘sit held him down. We‘d found out by this time that one wing was broke by my shot. So we jess hold of the tips of his wixigs an‘ led him to the house. Hj8 ring spread was ‘bout six or eight feet. When. I got him to the house I told ‘em I had the biggest hawk they ever seen. A oie man by the name of William said, “Hell, that ain‘t no hawk, that‘s a greg eagle.“