294 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
bluffs along the shores of Lake Huron, he wrote to him iin 
mediately to endeavor to find its ejrie and send him one of 
the young. 
His friend had been successful, and sent him this young 
bird ; stating, at the same time, that the location of the nest 
and the general habits of the old birds, entirely corresponded 
with the description Mr. Audubon had given of his dis- 
covery and observation of the nest and habits of the Bird 
of Washington, in the cliffs of Green Kiver, Kentucky. 
I had no copy of Audubon's plate at hand, to compare the 
drawing with the living bird ; but perceiving surely that it 
was entirely new, I concluded hastily that it must be the 
veritable Falco WashingtoniV^- — especially as its owner 
stated that he had several times had this specimen compared 
with Audubon's original plate, and found its markings to 
agree fully. Still I had some little doubt, fearing that my 
memory might have deceived me, and therefore requested 
my wife — as the period of our stay had now nearly closed — 
to at least take an accurate sketch of the head of this fine 
specimen in pencil. She did so, and I was particularly careful 
to note the proportions. I know these to be perfectly accu- 
rate, and on comparing them when I returned to Philadelphia, 
both with the drawing of Audubon and the specimens in the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, so much talked of, I became con- 
vinced that this Avas a different species from either, and that, 
too, in characteristics admitting of no close correspondence. 
In Audubon's plate the correspondence is not accurate by 
any means, in coloring of the plumage in the first place — ^and 
then the outlines of the head and form of the beak are in 
too many respects dissimilar to admit of the possibility of so 
accurate an artist having been guilty of such omissions in a 
subject so important to his reputation. He had clearly seen 
the new bird on the wing, and not having as yet chanced to 
meet with the great Cinerioiis Eagle in his wanderings, he 
has unguardedly confounded it with the new bird which he 
had seen before on the wing, and which he meant to name 
