68 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
first drew his attention while voyaging far up the Mis- 
sissippi, in the month of February, 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 hiss- 
ing 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 discov- 
ered, she, from this time, forsook the spot, and found 
means to convey away her young. The discoverer con- 
siders the species as rare ; indeed, its principal residence 
appears to be in the northern parts of the continent, par- 
ticularly the rocky solitudes around the great north- 
western lakes, where it can at all times collect its finny 
prey, and rear its young without the dread of man. In 
the winter season, about January and February, as well 
as at a later period of the spring, these birds are occa- 
sionally seen in this vicinity,* 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 farther than usual in search of food. At this 
early period, however, Audubon observed indications of 
the approach of the breeding season, and Mr. N. J. 
Wyeth, of Fresh Pond, in this neighbourhood, has seen 
them contending ocasionally in the air, so that one of 
the antagonists would sometimes 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 considerable time ; but de- 
Cambridge, Mass. 
