At the Water’s Edge 
thologist may have as much desire, although 
of quite another sort, to see an eagle or a hawk, 
as a rose-breasted grosbeak or a thrush. 
It is a curious fact in regard to birds of prey, 
as distinguished from the generality of the race, 
that the female is commonly larger than the 
male; and also interesting to note that an 
eagle in its second year is larger than ever after- 
ward. Ihave never heard its subsequent shrink- 
age accounted for. ‘The difficulties and occa- 
sional uncertainties of bird-classification are 
well illustrated by this bald eagle, whose plum- 
age is so different in the various stages of its 
growth as to have misled even Audubon into 
supposing a young specimen he found to be a 
distinct species. Apparently familiar only with 
the mature plumage of the bird, he congratu- 
lated himself immensely on the supposed dis- 
covery; which, in admiration of his adopted 
country’s father, he named ‘‘ the bird of Wash- 
ington.’’ There are, however, only two dis- 
tinct species in the entire country—the bald 
and the golden eagles. In its second year the 
bald eagle is much lighter in color, and not 
until the third year does it attain its perma- 
nent coloring—head, fore-neck, and tail pure 
white, the rest of the body dark brown. 
199 
