The Eagle, National Emblem

The bald eagle is a magnificent bird of prey that is native to North America. This majestic eagle is not really bald; white feathers cover its head. The derivation of the name "bald" is from an obsolete English word meaning white. The bald eagle has been the national symbol of the USA since 1782.

The bald eagle was chosen June 20. 1782 as the emblem of the United States of American, because of its iong lire, great strength and majestic looks, and also because it was then believed to exist only on this continent.

On the backs of our gold coins, the silver dollar, the half dollar and the quarter, we see an eagle with outspread wings. On the Great Seal of the United States and in many places which are exponents of our nation's authority we see the same emblem.

The eagle represents freedom. Living as he does on the tops of lofty mountains, amid the solitary grandeur of Nature, he has unlimited freedom, whether with strong pinions he sweeps into the valleys below, or upward into the boundless spaces beyond.

It is said the eagle was used as a national emblem because, at one of the first battles of the Revolution (which occurred early in the morning) the noise of the struggle awoke the sleeping eagles on the heights and they flew from their nests and circled about over the heads of the fighting men, all the while giving vent to their raucous cries. "They are shrieking for Freedom," said the patriots. Thus the eagle, full of the boundless spirit of freedom, living above the valleys, strong and powerful in his might, has become the national emblem of a country that offers freedom in word and thought and an opportunity for a full and free expansion into the boundless space of the future (Maude M. Grant).

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