WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH-HAWK. 289 



were open, they would dive in the day-time after fish, and 

 snatch them up in the manner of the fish-hawk ; and that 

 they roosted generally on the shelves of the rocks, where 

 they built their nests, of which he had discovered several by 

 the quantity of white dung scattered below. 



u Convinced that the bird was unknown to naturalists, I 

 felt particularly anxious to learn its habits, and to discover 

 in what particulars it differed from the rest of its genus. My 

 next meeting with this bird was a few years afterward, 

 whilst engaged in collecting cray-fish on one of those flats 

 which border and divide Green river, in Kentucky, near 

 its junction with the Ohio. The river is there bordered by 

 a range of high cliffs, which, for some distance, follow its 

 windings. I observed on the rocks, which, at that place, 

 are nearly perpendicular, a quantity of white ordure, which 

 I attributed to owls, that might have resorted thither. I 

 mentioned the circumstance to my companions, when one of 

 them, who lived within a mile and a half of the place, told 

 me it was from the nest of the Brown Eagle, meaning the 

 White-headed Eagle (Falco Leucocephalus), in its immature 

 state. I assured him this could not be, and remarked, that 

 neither the old nor the young birds of that species ever build 

 in such places, but always in trees. Although he could not 

 answer my objection, he stoutly maintained that a Brown 

 Eagle of some kind, above the usual size, had built there ; 

 and added, that he had espied the nest some days before, 

 and had seen one of the old birds dive and catch a fish. 

 This he thought strange, having, till then, always observed 

 that both Brown Eagles and Bald Eagles procured this kind 

 of food by robbing the fish-hawks. He said, that if I felt 

 particularly anxious to know what nest it was, I might soon 

 satisfy myself, as the old birds would come and feed their 

 young with fish, for he had seen them do so before. 



" In high expectation, I seated myself about a hundred 

 yards from the foot of the rock. Never did time pass more 

 slowly. I could not help betraying the most impatient 



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