"In high expectation, I seated myself about a hundred yards from the foot of the rock. Never did time pass more slowly. I could not help betraying the most impatient curiosity, for my hopes whispered it was a sea eagle's nest. Two long hours had elapsed before the old bird made his appearance, which was announced to us by the loud hissings of the two young ones, which crawled to the extremity of the hole to receive a fine fish. I had a perfect view of this noble bird as he held himself to the edging rock, hanging like the barn, bank, or social swallow, his tail spread, and his wings partly so. I trembled lest a word should escape from my companions. The slightest murmur had been treason from them. They entered into my feelings, and, although little interested, gazed with me. In a few minutes the other parent joined her mate, and, from the difference in size, (the female of rapacious birds being much larger,) we knew this to be the mother bird. She also had brought a fish; but, more cautious than her mate, she glanced her quick and piercing eye around, and instantly perceived that her abode had been discovered. She dropped her prey, with a loud shriek communicated the alarm to the male, and, hovering with him over our heads, kept up a growling cry, to intimidate us from our suspected design. This watchful solicitude I have ever found peculiar to the female must I be understood to speak only of birds ?

"The young having concealed themselves, we went and picked up the fish which the mother had let fall. It was a white perch, weighing about 5 lb. The upper part of the head was broken in, and the back torn by the talons of the eagle. We had plainly seen her bearing it in the manner of the fish-hawk.

"This day's sport being at an end, as we journeyed homewards, we agreed to return the next morning, with the view of obtaining both the old and young birds; but rainy and tempestuous weather setting in, it became necessary to defer the expedition till the third day following, when, with guns and men all in

readiness, we reached the rock. Some posted themselves at the foot, others upon it, but in vain. We passed the entire day, without either seeing or hearing an eagle, the sagacious birds, no doubt, having anticipated an invasion, and removed their young to new quarters.

"I come at last to the day which I had so often and so ardently desired. Two years had gone by since the discovery of the nest, in fruitless excursions; but my wishes were no longer to remain ungratified. In returning from the little village of Henderson, to the house of Doctor Rankin, about a mile distant, I saw an eagle rise from a small enclosure not a hundred yards before me, where the Doctor had, a few days before, slaughtered some hogs, and alight upon a low tree branching over the road. I prepared my double-barreled piece, which I constantly carry, and went slowly and cautiously towards him. Quite fearlessly he awaited my approach, looking upon me with undaunted eye. I fired, and he fell. Before I reached him, he was dead. With what delight did I survey the magnificent bird! Had the finest salmon ever pleased him as he did me? Never. I ran and presented him to my friend, with a pride which they alone can feel, who, like me, have devoted themselves from their earliest childhood to such pursuits, and who have derived from them their first pleasures. To others I must seem to

prattle out of fashion.' The Doctor, who was an experienced hunter, examined the bird with much satisfaction, and frankly acknowledged he had never before seen or heard of it.

"The name which I have chosen for this new species of eagle, the bird of Washington,' may, by some, be considered as preposterous and unfit; but as it is indisputably the noblest bird of its genus that has yet been discovered in the United States, I trust I shall be allowed to honour it with the name of one yet nobler, who was the saviour of his country, and whose name I will ever be dear to it. To those who may be curious to know my reasons, I can only say, that, as the new world gave me birth and liberty, the great man who

ensured its independence is next to my heart. He had a nobility of mind, and a generosity of soul, such as are seldom possessed. He was brave, so is the eagle; like it, too, he was the terror of his foes; and his fame, extending from pole to pole, resembles the majestic soarings of the mightiest of the feathered tribe. If America has reason to be proud of her Washington, so has she to be proud of her great eagle.

"In the month of January following, I saw a pair of these eagles flying over the falls of the Ohio, one in pursuit of the other. The next day I saw them again. The female had relaxed her severity, had laid aside her coyness, and to a favourite tree they continually resorted. I pursued them unsuccessfully for several days, when they forsook the place.

"The flight of this bird is very different from that of the white-headed eagle. The former encircles a greater space, whilst sailing, keeps nearer to the land and the surface of the water, and when about to dive for fish, falls in a spiral manner, as if with the intention of checking any retreating movement which its prey might attempt, darting upon it only when a few yards distant. The fish-hawk often does the same. When rising with a fish, the bird of Washington flies to a considerable distance, forming, in its line of course, a very acute angle with the surface line of the water. My last opportunity of seeing this bird, was on the 15th of November, 1821, a few miles above the mouth of the Ohio, when two passed over our boat, moving down the river with a gentle motion. In a letter from a kind relative, Mr W. Bakewell, dated Falls of the Ohio, July, 1819,' and containing particulars relative to the swallow-tailed hawk, (Falco furcatus,) that gentleman says:- Yesterday, for the first time, I had an opportunity of viewing one of those magnificent birds, which you call the sea eagle, as it passed low over me, whilst fishing. I shall be really glad when I can again have the pleasure of seeing your drawing of it.'

"Whilst in Philadelphia, about twelve months ago, I

had the gratification of seeing a fine specimen of this eagle at Mr Brano's museum. It was a male in fine plumage, and beautifully preserved. I wished to purchase it, with a view to carry it to Europe, but the price put upon it was above my means.

My excellent friend, Richard Harlan, M.D. of that city, speaking of this bird, in a letter, dated ‹ Philadelphia, August 19, 1830,' says, That fine specimen of Washington eagle, which you noticed in Brano's museum, is at present in my possession. I have deposited it in the academy, where it will most likely remain.' I saw the specimen alluded to, which, in as far as I could observe, agreed in size and markings exactly with my drawing, to which, however, I could not at the time refer, as it was, with the whole of my collection, deposited in the British Museum, under the care of my ever kind and esteemed friend, J. G. Children, Esq. of that institution.

"The glands containing the oil used for the purpose of anointing the surface of the plumage are extremely large. Their contents have the appearance of hog's lard, which had been melted and become rancid. This bird makes more copious use of that substance than the white-headed eagle, or any of the tribe to which it belongs, excepting the fish-hawk, the whole plumage looking, upon close examination, as if it had received a general coating of a thin clear dilution of gum-arabic, and presenting less of the downy gloss exhibited in the upper part of the white-headed eagle's plumage. The male bird weighs 14 lb. avoirdupois, and measures 3 feet 7 inches in length, and 10 feet 2 inches in extent.”

4. FALCO FULVUS. — RING-TAIL, or Golden EAGLE.

DR RICHARDSON says, at page 12 of the Northern Zoology,- "This powerful bird breeds in the recesses of the sub-alpine country which skirts the Rocky Mountains, and is seldom seen farther to the eastward. It is held by the aborigines of America, as it is by almost every other people, to be an emblem of

might and courage; and the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle plume as the most honourable ornament with which he can adorn himself. Its feathers are attached to the calumets, or smoking pipes, used by the Indians in the celebration of their solemn festivals, which has obtained for it the name of the calumet eagle. Indeed, so highly are these ornaments prized, that a warrior will often exchange a valuable horse for the tail feathers of a single eagle. The strength of vision of this bird must almost exceed conception, for it can discover its prey and pounce upon it from a height at which it is itself, with its expanded wings, scarcely visible to the human eye. When looking for its prey, it sails in large circles, with its tail spread out, but with little motion of its wings; and it often soars aloft in a spiral manner, its gyrations becoming gradually less and less perceptible, until it dwindles to a mere speck, and is at length entirely lost to the view. A story is current, on the plains of the Saskatchewan, of a half-breed Indian, who was vaunting his prowess before a band of his countrymen, and wishing to impress them with a belief of his supernatural powers. În the midst of his harangue an eagle was observed suspended as it were in the air, directly over his head, upon which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which glistened brightly in the sun, he called on the royal bird to come down. To his own amazement, no less than the consternation of the surrounding Indians, the eagle seemed to obey the charm, for instantly, shooting down with the velocity of an arrow, it impaled itself on the point of his weapon!"

5. FALCO LEUCOCEPHALUS.

THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE, OR BALD EAGLE.

AUDUBON, PLATE XXXI. MALE.

To the delightful history of this bird given by Wilson, vol. 1, p. 22, we have pleasure in adding that of Audubon, which will enable our readers to form an