Haliaeetus loucocephalus . 
Concord, Mass. 
1897. Immediately after breakfast I started on a long walk. 
Nov. 21. Passing Bensen ' s house I kept on across the Mason 
field and thence down towards the river when I heard distant 
shouting in the direction of the cabin. I accordingly turned 
back and made my way quickly towards Davis's Hill. Just as I 
reached its crest I saw Herbert Holden and Gilbert hurrying 
towards me through the woods. To my amazement they were 
bringing my 20 g. gun and cartridge bag. When they came up t 
Holden explained excitedly that he had come upon an enormous 
bird which he thought must be some kind of an Eagle at Birch 
Island. He saw it first flying through the trees. It a- 
lighted on the edge of the meadow when he walked up to within 
thirty feet of it and after looking at it several minutes left 
it sitting there and hastened back to the cabin to tell me a- 
bout it. As nearly half-an-hour had elapsed since he had left 
it we all feared that it would be gone but walking rapidly we 
soon reached the island and Holden almost immediately dis- 
covered the bird sitting on a pile of wood under the birches 
near the landing. I failed to see it at first owing, I think, 
to the fact that I was not looking for anything nearly so 
large. As it sat facing us it looked literally as big as a 
boy of five or six years of age. Its position was very erect, 
its pose impressively dignified and commanding. "What a noble 
