CHAPTER XIIL 
WASHINGTON EAGLE AND FISH HAWK 
We must premise in speaking of tlie " Bird of Washing- 
ton," tliat the existence of any sucli distinct species, as to 
entitle it to a new name, is still regarded by the majority of 
American naturalists, at least, as hypothetical. Indeed, the 
savans of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
utterly repudiate the existence of any such species, persisting 
that it is merely the great Cinerious, or Sea-Eagle, which 
Mr. Audubon has mistaken for a new variety. This bird, 
Falco Albicilla, even Mr. Audubon acknowledges to bear so 
strong a resemblance to the Bird of Washington, Falco 
WasMngtonm^ as to be easily confounded with it by a super- 
ficial observer. Now the Philadelphia Academicians assert 
that the specimen referred to by Audubon as having been 
deposited for the Washington Eagle, by Dr. Kichard Harlan, in 
their collection, is nothing more nor less than a very large Sea- 
Eagle, and that the drawing by Audubon himself is clearly 
of a bird of the same species. Here doctors disagree, to be 
sure, and I am not entirely certain that the Philadelphians 
are not in some degree right ; but that there is a new eagle, 
which has not yet been figured, or described, peculiar to the 
North American continent, I am perfectly sure, and that this 
eagle is the one noticed by Mr. Audubon, who saw it several 
times on the wing, I am equally certain, even although the 
particular bird figured by him may have been a Sea-Eagle. 
In a word, though there can be no doubt that he several 
