20 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
■ The Washington Ecgk. — It is to the indefatigable Audu- 
bon that we owe the distinct note and description of this noble 
Eagle, which first drew his attention while voyaging far up the 
Mississippi, in the month of P'ebruary, 1814. At length he had 
the satisfaction of discovering its eyry, in the high cliffs of Green 
River, in Kentucky, near to its junction with the Ohio : two 
young were discovered loudly hissing from a fissure in the 
rocks, on the approach of the male, from whom they received 
a fish. The female now also came, and with solicitous alarm 
for the safety of her young, gave a loud scream, dropped the 
food she had brought, and hovering over the molesting party, 
kept up a growling and threatening cry by way of intimidation ; 
and in fact, as our disappointed naturalist soon discovered, she 
from this time forsook the spot, and found means to convey 
away her young. The discoverer considers the species as rare, 
— indeed, its principal residence appears to be in the northern 
parts of the continent, particularly the rocky solitudes around 
the Great Northwestern Lakes, where it can at all times col- 
lect its finny prey and rear its young without the dread of man. 
In the wunter season, about January and February, as well as at 
a later period of the spring, these birds are occasionally seen 
in this vicinity (Cambridge, Mass.), — rendered perhaps bolder 
and more familiar by want, as the prevalence of the ice and 
cold at this season drives them to the necessity of wandering far- 
ther than usual in search of food. At this early period Audubon 
observed indications of the approach of the breeding-season. 
They are sometimes seen contending in the air, so that one of 
the antagonists will suddenly drop many feet downwards, as if 
wounded or alarmed. My friend Dr. Hayward, of Boston, had 
in his possession one of these fine, docile Eagles for a consid- 
erable time ; but desirous of devoting it to the then Linnsean 
Museum, he attempted to poison it by corrosive sublimate of 
mercury ; several times, however, doses even of two drams 
were given to it, concealed in fish, without producing any inju- 
rious effect on its health. 
The Washington Eagle, bold and vigorous, disdains the 
piratical habits of the Bald Eagle, and invariably obtains his 
