89 



WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE.* 

 FALCO LEUCOCEPHALUS. 

 [Plate XXXVL] 



Linn. Syst. 124. — Lath. I, 29. — Le Pygargiie a tete blanc, Buff. I, 99. PL enl. 41L— - 

 Arct. Zool. 196, No. 89. — Bald Eagle, Ca TESB. I, 1.-— Peale's Museum, No, 78. 



THIS distinguished bird, as he is the most beautiful of his tribe 

 in this part of the world, and the adopted emblem of our country, 

 is entitled to particular notice. He is represented, in the plate, of 

 one third his natural size, and was drawn from one of the largest 

 and most perfect specimens I have yet met with. In the back 

 ground is seen a distant view of the celebrated cataract of Niagara, 

 a noted place of resort for those birds, as well on account of the 

 fish procured there, as for the numerous carcases of squirrels, deer, 

 bear and various other animals, that in their attempts to cross the 

 river above the falls, have been dragged into the current, and 

 precipitated down that tremendous gulf, where, among the rocks 

 that bound the rapids below, they furnish a rich repast for the 

 Vulture, the Raven, and the Bald Eagle, the subject of the pre- 

 sent account. 



This bird has been long known to naturalists, being common 

 to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high 

 northern latitude, to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in 

 the vicinity of the sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes 



* The epithet bald, applied to this species, whose head is thickly covered with feathers, 

 is equally improper and absurd with the titles Goatsucker, Kinsgfisher, &c. bestowed on 

 others ; and seems to have been occasioned by the white appearance of the head, when con- 

 trasted with the dark color of the rest of the plumage. The appellation, however, being now 

 almost universal is retained in the following pages. 



VOL. IV. Z 



