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 54 Ibs. 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 all 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 treo 
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