CHAPTER XIII. 



WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH HAWK 



WE must premise in speaking of the " Bird of Washing- 

 ton," that the existence of any such distinct species, as to 

 entitle it to a new name, is still regarded by the majority of 

 American naturalists, at least, as hypothetical. Indeed, the 

 savans of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 utterly repudiate the existence, of any such species, persisting 

 that it is merely the great Cinerious, or Sea-Eagle, which 

 Mr. Audubon has mistaken for a new variety. This bird, 

 Falco Albicilla, even Mr. Audubon acknowledges to bear so 

 strong a resemblance to the Bird of Washington, Falco 

 Washingtoniis, as to be easily confounded with it by a super- 

 ficial observer. Now the Philadelphia Academicians assert 

 that the specimen referred to by Audubon as having been 

 deposited for the Washington Eagle, by Dr. Kichard Harlan, in 

 their collection, is nothing more nor less than a very large Sea- 

 Eagle, and that the drawing by Audubon himself is clearly 

 of a bird of the same species. Here doctors disagree, to be 

 sure, and I am not entirely certain that the Philadelphia^ 

 are not in some degree right ; but that there is a new eagle, 

 which has not yet been figured, or described, peculiar to the 

 North American continent, I am perfectly sure, and that this 

 eagle is the one noticed by Mr. Audubon, who saw it several 

 times on the wing, I am equally certain, even although the 

 particular bird figured by him may have been a Sea-Eagle. 

 In a word, though there can be no doubt that he several 



