WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH-HAWK. 
291 
eagle, the sagacious birds, no doubt, having anticipated an 
invasion, and removed their J^oung 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 dis- 
covery of the nest, in fruitless excursions ; but my wishes 
were no longer to remain ungratified. In returning from 
the Kttle village of Henderson, to the house of Dr. Eankin, 
about a mile distant, I saw an eagle rise from a small in- 
closure, not a hundred yards before me, where the doctor 
had, a few days before, slaughtered some hogs, and alight 
upon a low tree branching over the road. I prepared my 
double-barrelled piece, which I constantly carry, and went 
slowly and cautiously toward him. Quite fearlessly he 
awaited my approach, looking on me with undaunted eye. 
I fired, and he fell. Before I reached him he was dead. 
With what delight did I survey the magnificent bird ! Had 
the finest salmon ever pleased him, as he did me ? Never. 
I ran and presented him to my friend with a pride which 
they alone feel who, like me, have devoted themselves from 
their earliest childhood to such persuits, and who have de- 
rived from them their first pleasures. To others, I must 
seem to ' prattle out of fashion.' The doctor, who was an 
experienced hunter, examined the bird with much satisfac- 
tion, and frankly acknowledged he had never before seen or 
heard of it. 
" The name which I have chosen for this new species of 
eagle — ^the Bird of Washington — may, by some, be con- 
sidered as preposterous and unfit ; but as it is, indisputably, 
the noblest bird of its genus that has yet been discovered 
in the United States, I trust I shall be allowed to honor it 
with the name of one yet nobler, who was the savior of his 
country, and whose name will ever be dear to it. To those 
who may be curious to know my reasons, I can only say 
that, as the new world gave me birth and liberty, the great 
man who insured its independence is next my heart. He 
had a nobility of mind and a generosity of soul, such as are 
