AUDUBON AND BOONE. 187 



gazed ■with me. In a few minutes the other parent joined 

 her mate, and from the difference in size (the female of rapa- 

 cious birds being much larger), we knew this to be the mother 

 bird. She also had brought a fish ; but, more cautious than 

 her mate, she glanced her quick and piercing eye around, and 

 instantly perceived that her abode had been discovered. She 

 dropped her prey, with a loud shriek communicated the alarm 

 to the male, and, hovering with him over our heads, kept up 

 a growling cry, to intimidate us from our suspected design. 

 This watchful solicitude I have ever found peculiar to the 

 female : — must I be understood 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 5^ lbs. 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 home- 

 wards, 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 excursions ; but my wishes were no 

 longer to remain ungratified. In returning 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 



