288 
WILD SCENES AND SONG BIEDS. 
times saw a new eagle on the wing, there may be some doubt 
about the particular specimen shot by him at Henderson be- 
ing the same bird. I shall first, although having previously 
furnished a portion of these extracts in my first volume, give 
his description of the discovery by him of tlie Washington 
Eagle, feeling myself fully justified by the importance of the 
subject, in quoting them entire, before I proceed to explain 
my reasons for the seemingly paradoxical opinion given 
here. 
Mr. Audubon says : 
" It was in the month of February, 1814, that I obtained 
the first sight of this noble bird, and never shall I forget the 
delight which it gave me. Not even Herschel, when he dis- 
covered the planet which bears his name, could have ex- 
perienced more rapturous feelings. We were on a trading 
voyage, ascending the Upper Mississippi. The keen wintry 
blasts whistled around us, and the cold from which I suffered 
had, in a great degree, extinguished the deep interest which, 
at other seasons, this magnificent sight has been wont to 
wake in me. I lay stretched beside our patroon. The safety 
of the cargo was forgotten, and the only thing that called my 
attention was the multitude of ducks of different species, ac- 
companied by vast flocks of swans, which from time to time 
passed us. My patroon, a Canadian, had been years en- 
gaged in the fur trade. He was a man of much intelligence ; 
and, perceiving that these birds had engaged my curiosity, 
seemed anxious to find some new object to divert me. An 
eagle flew over us. ' How fortunate I' he exclaimed, ' this 
is what I could have wished. Look, sir, the Great Eagle, 
and the only one I have seen since I left the lakes.' I was 
instantly on my feet, and having observed it attentively, 
concluded, as I lost it in the distance, that it was a species 
quite new to me. My patroon assured me that such birds 
were indeed rare ; that they sometimes followed the hunters, 
to feed on the entrails of the animals which they had killed 
when the lakes were frozen over ; but that when the lakes 
