128 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
well knew could not be accurate! The skin, when the bird 
was quite recent, was of a bright yellow. The bird was ex- 
tremely lousy. Its stomach contained the remains of a bull- 
frog, numerous hard-shelled worms, and a quantity of horse 
and deer-hair. The skin was saved with great difficulty, and 
its plumage had entirely lost its original lightness of coloring. 
The deep red of the fleshy parts of the head had assumed a 
purplish livid hue, and the spoil scarcely resembled the coat 
of the living Eagle. 
I made a double drawing of this individual, for the purpose 
of showing all its feathers, which I hope will be found to be 
accurately represented. 
This is the way in which one of the truest naturalists who 
ever delineated form of bird, beast, or creeping thing, con- 
sidered it necessary to labor in his vocation, and this is his 
opinion about the evanescence of colors in the Gead subjects, 
and, as is of course implied, of the undoubtedly wide play for 
the “fancy” in replacing them. 
Hear, too, his account of the study of Water Birds. He 
says— : 
The difficulties which are to be encountered in studying 
the habits of our Water Birds are great. He who follows 
the feathered inhabitants of the forests and plains, however 
rough or tangled the paths may be, seldom fails to obtain the 
objects of his pursuit, provided he be possessed of due enthu- 
siasm and perseverance. The Land Bird flits from bush to 
bush, runs before you, and seldom extends its flight beyond 
the range of your vision. It is very different with the Water 
Bird, which sweeps afar over the wide ocean, hovers above 
the surges, or betakes itself for refuge to the inaccessible 
rocks on the shore. There, on the smooth sea-beach, you see 
the lively and active Sandpiper; on that rugged promontory 
the Dusky Cormorant; under the dark shade of yon cypress 
the Ibis and Heron; above you in the still air floats the Peli- 
can or the Swan; while far over the angry billows scour the 
