THE BALD-HEADED AMERICAN EAGLE. 17 



they contemplated. To complete the stor}', I may 

 add, that I wished to recover the eaglet which Ben 

 had first of all let go, so re-loading my gun and 

 slinging it over my shoulder, I got upon the rope 

 (having previously knotted it at intervals) and let 

 myself quietly down to the eagle's nest. The eaglet 

 was lying in the middle of the nest, and I easily got 

 possession of it. 



The eagle's nest' was built upon the brow 

 of the rock, a mass of branches, briars, &c., 

 about five or six feet long, completely sur- 

 rounded by stinking offal of every description and 

 whitened bones. The eagle that I had killed 

 measured twelve feet from wing to wing, and was a 

 female. 



Three days afterwards, I lay in ambush near the 

 empty nest of the eagles, waiting for the male, who 

 did not make his appearance. It may be that he 

 had been killed, or it may be that, having witnessed 

 the destruction of his wife and children, he had 

 prudently resolved to keep his distance. I carried 

 the two eaglets to Staten Island and gave them to 

 Mr. Blan chard, the landlord of the hotel on that 

 oasis of New York. One of them died after a few 

 weeks, in spite of all the care which was taken of 

 him ; the other was a fat and healthy bird in 1849, 

 when I quitted the United States, and displayed 

 himself upon his x^erch, in the garden of the hotel, 

 in true convict's dress, for he was chained by the 



VOL. I. c 



