68 BIRDS OF PREY. 



first drew his attention while voyaging far up the Mis- 

 sissippi, in the month of February, 1814. At length, he 

 had the satisfaction of discovering its eyry in the high 

 cliffs of Green River in Kentucky, near to its junction 

 with the Ohio ; two young were discovered loudly hiss- 

 ing from a fissure in the rocks, on the approach of the 

 male, from whom they received a fish. The female now 

 also came, and with solicitous alarm for the safety of her 

 young, gave a loud scream, dropped the food she had 

 brought, and hovering over the molesting party, kept up 

 a growling and threatening cry by way of intimidation ; 

 and, in fact, as our disappointed naturalist soon discov- 

 ered, she, from this time, forsook the spot, and found 

 means to convey away her young. The discoverer con- 

 siders the species as rare ; indeed, its principal residence 

 appears to be in the northern parts of the continent, par- 

 ticularly the rocky solitudes around the great north- 

 western lakes, where it can at all times collect its finny 

 prey, and rear its young without the dread of man. In 

 the winter season, about January and February, as well 

 as at a later period of the spring, these birds are occa- 

 sionally seen in this vicinity^* rendered perhaps bolder 

 and more familiar by want, as the prevalence of the ice 

 and cold, at this season, drives them to the necessity of 

 wandering farther than usual in search of food. At this 

 early period, however, Audubon observed indications of 

 the approach of the breeding season, and Mr. N. J. 

 Wyeth, of Fresh Pond, in this neighbourhood, has seen 

 them contending ocasionally in the air, so that one of 

 the antagonists would sometimes suddenly drop many 

 feet downwards as if wounded or alarmed. My friend. 

 Dr. Hayward of Boston, had in his possession one of 

 these fine docile Eagles for a considerable time : but de- 



* Cambridge, Mass. 



