OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 25 



LITERATURE. 



The first printed reference to any New Hampshire bird appears 

 to be that of John Josselyn, in 1672, in his "New England's Rar- 

 ities Discovered In Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants 

 of that Country. ' ' He describes ' ' the pilhannaw, or mechquan, 

 much like the description of the Indian ruck; a monstrous great 

 bird; a kind of hawk, some say an eagle; four times as big as 

 a goshawk; white-mailed, having two or three purple feathers in 

 her head, as long as geese's feathers they make pens of. The 

 quills of these feathers are purple, as big as swan's quills, and 

 transparent. Her head is as big as a child's of a year old; a very 

 princely bird. When she soars abroad, all sort of feathered 

 creatures hide themselves; yet she never preys upon any of them, 

 but upon fawns and jaccals. She ayries in the woods upon the 

 high hills of Ossapy, and is very rarely or seldom seen. " It is 

 generally supposed that this " princely bird, " whose home was 

 among the Ossipee hills, or higher peaks beyond, must have 

 been largely fabulous. Doubtless, as suggested by Dr. Tuck- 

 erman, Josselyn 's bird was but a confused conception of the gold- 

 en eagle, the bald eagle, and the great blue heron. The purple 

 feathers are supposed to indicate the heron, and the white head 

 and tail of the bald eagle may meet the conception of a " white- 

 mailed " bird ; the habit of preying upon fawns, perhaps indicates 

 the golden eagle. 



After this brief mention, I have found no further reference to 

 the birds of New Hampshire until 1792, over one hundred years 

 later. In this year appeared Jeremy Belknap's "History of 

 New Hampshire," in the third volume of which is given an ac- 

 count of the natural products of that portion of New England. 



