60 BIRD OF WASHINGTON. \ 



ful solicitude I have ever found peculiar to the female :•!— must I be un- 

 derstood to speak only of birds ? ■ 



The young having concealed themselves, we went and picked up the 

 fish which the mother had let fall. It was a white perch, weighing about 

 5g lb. The upper part of the head was broken in, and the back torn 

 by the talons of the eagle. We had plainly seen her bearing it in the 

 manner of the Fish-Hawk. 



This day's sport being at an end, as we journeyed homewards, we 

 agreed to return the next morning, with the view of obtaining both the 

 old and young birds ; but rainy and tempestuous weather setting in, it 

 became necessary to defer the expedition till the third day following, 

 when, with guns and men aU in readiness, we reached the rock. Some 

 posted themselves at the foot, others upon it, but in vain. We passed 

 the entire day, without either seeing or hearing an eagle, the sagacious 

 birds, no doubt, having anticipated an invasion, and removed their young 

 to new quarters. 



I come at last to the day which I had so often and so ardently desired. 

 Two years had gone by since the discovery of the nest, in fruitless ex- i 

 cursions ; but my wishes were no longer to remain ungratified. In re- 

 turning from the little village of Henderson, to the house of Doctor 

 Rankin, about a mile distant, I saw an eagle rise from a small enclosure ' 

 not a hundred yards before me, where the Doctor had a few days before 

 slaughtered some hogs, and alight upon a low tree branching over the 

 road. I prepared my double-barrelled piece, which I constantly carry, i 

 and went slowly and cautiously towards him. Quite fearlessly he await- I 

 ed my approach, looking upon me with undaunted eye. I fired and he 

 fell. Before I reached him he was dead. <^ With what dehght did I sur^ 

 vey 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, Hke 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 experienced 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 considered as preposterous and 



