Valley of the River Rouge, fyc. 259 



could command a view from it of the whole lake, and observe the 

 approach of every foe. Late in the evening I endeavoured to ob- 

 tain the only bird to be seen near the nest, but it was so extremely 

 shy, circling high in the air round the tree far out of shot, that 

 after several ineffectual attempts, I gave it up, till early on the 

 following morning when I again visited the spot. Both birds 

 flew off the nest the moment they perceived my approach in the 

 canoe, and their hurried, startled flight was very peculiar and un- 

 like that of any other hawk I ever saw. Having hid myself in 

 the bushes at the foot of the tree, I sent the canoe with the two 

 men who had brought me there, to the end of the lake, and in a 

 few minutes the male-bird, supposing we had all left the place, 

 returned and pitched on a branch near the top of the pine. I 

 instantly fired one barrel, but although apparently hard struck by 

 the shot which knocked out many of his feathers, he flew off. A 

 moment after the female pitched on the same branch, and having 

 fired my remaining barrel loaded with a heavy charge of duck- 

 shot, she dropped from the giddy height at which she was perched 

 with a leg and wing broken, and otherwise much injured. I 

 rushed to secure her, and though so severely wounded, her splen- 

 did golden eye never for an instant quailed, and she fought with 

 desperation, rendering it a difficult matter to despatch her. The 

 male-bird flew up the lake and never returned, and I fear he must 

 have died from the effects of my shot. I had the old pine-tree 

 cut down, as the only means of examining the nest, but was great- 

 ly disappointed when I found there were no eggs in it. In this 

 secluded lake, shut in by hills thickly clothed with trees, in the 

 gray of the early morning, rendered stiil more gloomy by a dense 

 drizzling rain which was falling, it was a splendid sight to see the 

 huge scathed pine plunge into the tranquil water, its rotten 

 branches breaking up into a thousand pieces from the shock, 

 dashing up a cloud of spray, and covering the glassy surface of 

 the lake far around, with its fragments. The nest was very large, 

 composed of sticks of considerable size, and lined with dead leaves. 

 The bird which I shot measured nearly live feet across the extend- 

 ed wings. On dissecting it I found the egg -mall (none being 

 larger than a small marble), but numerous. The intestines were 

 about the thickness of a goose-quill, and measured seven feet six 

 inches in length. The heart and liver were very large. The 

 head was so much bigger than the neck I had great difficulty in 

 passing the skin over the skull. There was one small intestinal 

 worm in the stomach. 



