262 
FALCO WASHINGTON!!. 
distance, that it was a species quite new to me. ^ \ 
patroon assured me, that such birds were indeed ra re ' 
that they sometimes followed the hunters, to feed ® 
the entrails of animals which they had killed, when t 
lakes were frozen over, but that when the lakes j 
open, they would dive in the daytime after fish, 
snatch them up in the manner of the fishing hawk ; !1 ® 
that they roosted generally on the shelves of the roe ‘ J 
where they built their nests, of which he had discover® 
several by the quantity of white dung scattered bel° 
“ Convinced that the bird was unknown to natural^ 
I felt particularly anxious to learn its habits, and j 
discover in what particulars it differed from the rest ^ 
its genus. My next meeting with this bird was a . 
years afterwards, whilst engaged in collecting cray 11 
on one of those flats which border and divide G rC 
River, in Kentucky, near its junction with the OJ 1 ' 
The river is there bordered by a range of high cl* £ 
which, for some distance, follow its windings. I °.y 
served on the rocks, which, at that place, are n_ e ®* \ 
perpendicular, a quantity of white ordure, which j 
attributed to owls that might have resorted thither, 
mentioned the circumstance to my companions, 
one of them, who lived within a mile and a half of 
place, told me it was from the nest of the brown ''3? j 
meaning the white-headed eagle ( Falco leucocepb a ‘ >l f', 
in its immature state. I assured him this could not ’ 
and remarked, that neither the old nor the young 
of that species ever build in such places, but alw aV' . f 
trees. Although he could not answer my objection* ^ 
stoutly maintained that a brown eagle of some l' 1 ' 1 .’ 
above the usual size, had built there ; and added, tD 
he had espied the nest some days before, and had se^ 
one of the old birds dive and catch a fish. This . 
thought strange, having, till then, always observed 1 j 
both brown eagles and bald eagles procured this kind ^ 
food by robbing the fish-hawks, lie said, that if *. 
particularly anxious to know what nest it was, 1 
soon satisfy myself, as the old birds would come and f* . 
their young with fish, for he had seen them do so beto 
