262 
FALCO WASHINGTON!!. 
distance, that it was a species quite new to me. My 
patroon assured me, that such birds were indeed rare; 
that they sometimes followed the hunters, to feed on 
the entrails of animals which they had killed, when the 
lakes were frozen over, but that when the lakes were 
open, they would dive in the daytime after fish, and 
snatch them up in the manner of the fishing hawk ; and 
that they roosted generally on the shelves of the rocks, 
where they built their nests, of which he had discovered 
several by the quantity of white dung scattered below. 
“ Convinced that the bird was unknown to naturalists, 
I felt particularly anxious to learn it's habits, and to 
discover in what particulars it differed from the rest of 
its genus. My next meeting with this bird was a few 
years afterwards, whilst engaged in collecting crayfish 
on one of those flats which border and divide Green 
Kiver, in Kentucky, near its junction with the Ohio. 
The river is there bordered by a range of high cliffs, 
which, for some distance, follow its windings. I ob- 
served on the rocks, which, at that place, are nearly 
perpendicular, a quantity of white ordure, which I 
attributed to owls that might have resorted thither. I 
mentioned the circumstance to my companions, when 
one of them, who lived within a mile and a half of the 
place, told me it was from the nest of the brow r n eagle, 
meaning the white-headed eagle ( Falco leucocephalus ,) 
in its immature state. I assured him this could not be, 
and remarked, that neither the old nor the young birds 
of that species ever build in such places, but always in 
trees. Although he could not answer my objection, he 
stoutly maintained that a brow n eagle of some kind, 
above the usual size, had built there ; and added, that 
he had espied the nest some days before, and had seen 
one of the old birds dive and catch a fish. This he 
thought strange, having, till then, always observed that 
both brown eagles and bald eagles procured this kind of 
food by robbing the fish-hawks. He said, that if I felt 
particularly anxious to know r w r hat nest it was, I might 
soon satisfy myself, as the old birds would come and feed 
their young with fish, for he had seen them do so before. 
