20 BIRDS OF PREY. 



The Washington Eagle. — It is to the indefatigable Audu- 

 bon that we owe the distinct note and description of this noble 

 Eagle, which first drew his attention while voyaging far up the 

 Mississippi, in the month of February, i8r4. At length he had 

 the satisfaction of discovering its eyry, in the high cliffs of Green 

 River, in Kentucky, near to its junction with the Ohio : two 

 young were discovered loudly hissing from a fissure in the 

 rocks, on the approach of the male, from whom they received 

 a fish. The female now also came, and with solicitous alarm 

 for the safety of her young, gave a loud scream, dropped the 

 food she had brought, and hovering over the molesting party, 

 kept up a growling and threatening cry by way of intimidation ; 

 and in fact, as our disappointed naturalist soon discovered, she 

 from this time forsook the spot, and found means to convey 

 away her young. The discoverer considers the species as rare, 

 — indeed, its principal residence appears to be in the northern 

 parts of the continent, particularly the rocky solitudes around 

 the Great Northwestern Lakes, where it can at all times col- 

 lect its finny prey and rear its young without the dread of man. 

 In the winter season, about January and February, as well as at 

 a later period of the spring, these birds are occasionally seen 

 in this vicinity (Cambridge, Mass.), — rendered perhaps bolder 

 and more familiar by want, as the prevalence of the ice and 

 cold at this season drives them to the necessity of wandering far- 

 ther than usual in search of food. At this early period Audubon 

 observed indications of the approach of the breeding-season. 

 They are sometimes seen contending in the Uir, so that one of 

 the antagonists will suddenly drop many feet downwards, as if 

 wounded or alarmed. My friend Dr. Hayward, of Boston, had 

 in his possession one of these fine, docile Eagles for a consid- 

 erable time ; but desirous of devoting it to the then Linnsean 

 Museum, he attempted to poison it by corrosive sublimate of 

 mercury : several times, however, doses even of two drams 

 were given to it, concealed in fish, without producing any inju- 

 rious effect on its health. 



The Washington Eagle, bold and vigorous, disdains the 

 piratical habits of the Bald Eagle, and invariably obtains his 



