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To: Rufii
"Besides, I thought eagles were birds of prey, not scavengers."

Nope...just a different flavor of buzzard.

84 posted on 01/14/2022 3:26:39 PM PST by Wonder Warthog (Not Responding to Seagull Snark)
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To: Wonder Warthog; Rufii

Benjamin Franklin didn’t think the bald eagle should be the national bird due to its scavenging. He thought it should have been the turkey!

From a letter to his daughter:

“For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. . . . the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.”

Some think that this letter was written in jest. Perhaps. Franklin helped design the great seal with the eagle, and used it on some of his publications before it became official.


101 posted on 01/14/2022 3:41:08 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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