188 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



branching over the road. I prepared my double-barrelled 

 piece, which I constantly carry, and went slowly and cau- 

 tiously towards him. Quite fearlessly he awaited my ap- 

 proach, looking upon me with undaunted eye. I fired, and 

 he fell. Before I reached him he was dead. With what 

 delight did I survey the magnificent bird ! Had the finest 

 salmon ever pleased him as he did me ? Never. I ran and 

 presented him to my friend, with a pride which they alone 

 can feel, who, like me, have devoted themselves from their 

 earliest childhood to such pursuits, and who have derived 

 from them their first pleasures. To others I must seem to 

 " prattle out of fashion." The Doctor, who was an expe- 

 rienced hunter, examined the bird with much satisfaction, 

 and frankly acknowledged he had never before seen or heard 

 of it. 



The name which I have chosen for this new species of 

 Eagle, "The Bird of Washington," may, by some, be con- 

 sidered as preposterous and unfit; but as it is indisputably 

 the noblest bird of its genus that has yet been discovered in 

 the United States, I trust I shall be allowed to honor it with 

 the name of one yet nobler, who was the saviour of his coun- 

 try, and whose name will ever be dear to it. To those who 

 may be curious to know my reasons, I can only say, that, as 

 the New World gave me birth and liberty, the great man 

 who insured its independence is next to my heart. He had 

 a nobility of mind, and a generosity of soul, such as are 

 seldom possessed. He was brave, so is the eagle; like it, 

 too, he was the terror of his foes ; and his fame, extending 

 from pole to pole, resembles the majestic soarings of the 

 mightiest of the feathered tribe. If America has reason to 

 be proud of her Washington, so has she to be proud of her 

 Great Eagle. . 



In the month of January following, I saw a pair of these 

 eagles flying over the Falls of the Ohio, one in pursuit of the 

 other. The next day I saw them again. The female had 



