WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH-HAWK. 299 



an occasional intercourse between the Osprey and the Sea- 

 Eagle, contradicts all actual observation, and one of the 

 most common and fixed laws of nature ; for it may be safely 

 asserted, that there is no habit more universal among the 

 feathered race, in their natural state, than that chastity of at- 

 tachment which confines the amours of individuals to those 

 of their own species only. 



" That perversion of nature, produced by domestication, 

 is nothing to the purpose. In no instance have I ever ob- 

 served the slightest appearance of a contrary conduct. Even 

 in those birds which never build a nest for themselves, nor 

 hatch their young, nor even pair, but live in a state of gen- 

 eral concubinage such as the cuckoo of the old, and the 

 caw-bunting of the new continent there is no instance of a 

 deviation from this striking habit. I cannot, therefore, avoid 

 considering the opinion above alluded to, that ' the male 

 Osprey, by coupling with the female Sea-Eagle, produces sea 

 eagles ; and that the female Osprey, by pairing with the male 

 Sea-Eagle gives birth of Osprey s,' or Fish-Hawks, as alto- 

 gether unsupported by facts, and contradicted by the con- 

 stant and universal habits of the whole feathered race, in 

 their state of nature." 



Wilson seems to have made the same mistake in regard to 

 Falco Ossifragus, his sea-eagle, that Audubon has undoubtedly 

 fallen into in relation to Falco Washingtonii and the same 

 bird. Since, as I remarked in my last paper, the specimen 

 figured by him as a specimen of the new bird, is so nearly 

 like to Falco Albicilla, as to leave a doubt whether he has not 

 figured a fine accidental example of the latter for a new and 

 unnamed bird which undoubtedly does exist, but the swallow- 

 like wings of which, not to speak of their immense exten- 

 sion and the peculiar beak and head, renders it as yet a com- 

 paratively unknown and certainly an unfigured species. 



But however it may be in regard to these curious discuss- 

 ions, growing out of the different experiences and sources of 

 information at the command of individual authors belonging 



