98 



THE OOLOGIST. 



schel when he discovered the planet 

 which bears his name, could have ex- 

 perienced more rapturous feelings. 

 We were on a trading voyage, ascend- 

 ing the Upper Mississippi. The keen 

 wintry blasts whistled around us, and 

 the cold from which I suffered had, in a 

 great degree, distinguished the deep in- 

 terest which at other seasons, had been 

 wont to wake in me. I lay stretched 

 beside our patroon. The safety of the 

 cargo was forgotten, and the only thing 

 that called ray attention, was the mul- 

 titude of ducks of different species, ac- 

 companied by vast flocks of swans, 

 which from time to time passed us. 

 My patroon, a Canadian, had been for 

 years engaged in the fur trade. He 

 was a man of much intelligence; and 

 perceiving that these birds had engag- 

 ed my attention, seemed anxious to find 

 some new object to divert me. An 

 eagle flew over us. How fortunate! he 

 exclaimed, 'this is what I could have 

 wished. Look, sir, the great eagle, and 

 the only one that I have seen since I 

 left the lakes.' I was instantly on my 

 feet, and having observed it attentively 

 concluded as I lost it in the distance, 

 that it was a new species quite new to 

 me." 



A few years after this Audubon had 

 the pleasure of killing one of this sup- 

 posed new species, and pi-eserved it. 

 Afterwai"ds he made a drawing of which 

 it took him fourteen days to complete. 

 He gave it the name of The Bird of 

 Washington. As great a Naturalist, 

 and bird-lover as Audubon was he had 

 made a mistake. His new species was 

 nothing more than an immature Bald 

 Eagle. Such must certainly be the 

 case, or some other Natui'alist would 

 have seen this new eagle, and noticed 

 it. Mr. Webber in his book, "Wild Scenes 

 and Song Birds" says in regard to the 

 certainly new species: "That Mr. Aud- 

 u])on has made a mistake in regard to 

 the fact, of this being a new species." 

 Bald Eagles nest in Florida more 



than anywhere else on this Continent. 

 There, ^ilong the Indian River region, 

 you can -And the nest and be able to see 

 one or two more not very far distant. 



I know where a pair of eagles nest in 

 this county (Bertie) every year, but 

 that is all I know about it. I have of- 

 ten wished that I could climb to it; but 

 it is useless to wish, since the nest is at 

 the top — the very pinnacle — of a very 

 high dead pine. This pine is in a 

 swamp, on the left hand bank of the 

 Cashi River where it empties in the 

 Albemarle Sound, and if any I'eader of 

 the OoLOGiST wishes to know the exact 

 situation of an eagle's nest, will take a 

 Geography and look at the place, he 

 will see the place where a pair of Eagles 

 build every year and raise their young- 

 ones in safety, from the simple reason 

 that I am not able to obtain their eggs. 

 GOLDEN EAGLE {Aquila chvysaetus.) 

 This species is about as common in 

 California as the Bald Eagle is in Flor- 

 ida. They usually build in the moun- 

 tain cliffs, but often appropriate trees 

 for this purpose. In all cases their nest 

 is very hard to reach, as they build in 

 the highest trees that they can And, or 

 else upon inaccessible crags of the 

 mountains of which of either they can 

 find a plenty, because the counti-y 

 round about California is noted for these 

 two things. The Golden Eagle is very 

 near the same size of the Bald Eagle, 

 but differ greatly in plumage. The for- 

 mer is of a rich golden brown, while 

 the latter is a Vandyke brown with 

 white head and tail. In Asia Minor 

 this species is very common, nesting 

 among the Taurus Mountains in the al- 

 most inaccessible crags and clefts. It- 

 is witli great difficulty that the nests 

 can be reached. I have a set of two in 

 ray collection that was collected there, 

 and the description of the nest on the 

 data reads thus: "Nest, was made of 

 sticks, sods, feathei's, bones, etc., placed 

 in a clift", reached by a man being low- 

 ered with ropes from above." By the 



