headed eagle; for he nests in trees, mostly in white pines, where he builds a huge faggot-like pile of branches and dead sticks seven or eight feet long, which he uses not merely as his procreant cradle, but as his usual home and habitation in all sea

sons.

It was not the haunt of the noble Golden Eagle, the sovereign of the fowls of air; for he, though a rock-dweller, eschews a fish-diet, and feeds, like a royal hunter as he is, on the grouse, the ptarmigan, the varying hare of the mountains, or the fawn and antelope of the prairies.

Conviction flashed upon his mind, and triumph. He had found the dwellingplace of the Bird of Washington. He made inquiries among the more intelligent settlers, and learned-what confirmed his views-the crags he had seen were the haunt of two huge birds of prey, larger than the men had known elsewhere.

He lay in wait; he watched with Indian patience; he got a shot at length; and his theory was verified, his greatest triumph won-turn, reader mine, from this simple record to his inspired pages, for the artless, but, how graphic description, of his own rapture, when he held in his hand at last, the term of so many hopes delayed, the mighty Bird of Washington.

That noble collection, the Lyceum of Natural History at Philadelphia, contains a very fine specimen of this largest of the Falconidæ.

The male bird measures three feet seven inches in length from the point of his bill to his claws; and no less than ten feet two inches, from tip to tip of his expanded pinions. In all birds of prey it is observable that the female exceeds the male in size and strength, so that even these vast dimensions must not be esteemed the greatest.

The bill of this eagle is very strong and much uncated, of a dark, bluish-black hue, with a dull yellow cere. Its plumage is darker than that of any other eagle, varying from deep chocolate brown to nearly pure black. Its feet are orange yellow. This is a very rare species, and although its habitation is laid down in the books as extending throughout the Union, I have heard of no instance in which it has been taken or verified in the Eastern States, or on the sea-board. Its eyrie and nesting place are in cliffs inaccessible to the foot of man; the number of its eggs is not ascertained; and little is known of its habits except that it is a fish-eater of choice, though like all its race it will take quadrupeds and water-fowl when pressed by hunger; whence it is rightly classed in the sub-genus Haliœtus,

or Sea Eagle of Savigny. All these large birds of prey are for the most part widely and thinly dispersed over great tracts of territory, especially those which dwell inland and rely on the rivers and the wilderness for their support, since wide hunting grounds are to them, as to their fellow forester, the red Indian, indispensable for subsistence.

The White-headed Eagle is, in this respect, more fortunate than his congeners, that the whole length of the oceanic coasts, of the lake and river shores, wherever surges break and billows foam, is tributary to his wants; and therefore he is much the most frequent of his order, and is in fact as familiar to the inhabitants of our sea-boards as are the other varieties strange and of rare occurrence, except in peculiar districts.

The next species, which like the last is by no means generally familiar to the inhabitants of the United States, and of whose habits little is known except to a few, is the noblest in bearing, the most princely in aspect, the bravest, the fiercest, and in its general attributes-although it will be found to fall far short of Buffon's fanciful imaginings- the most generous of the order.

The Golden Eagle, Aquila Chrysaetos, the fabulous minister of Olympian thunderbolts, to whom the sovereign of the gods permitted sovereignty over all the fowls of air; the warrior bird, and kingly emblem, of all times and nations, from the sensuous and poetic Greek, to the wild Gaël on the Scottish Highlands, or the roving Camanche on the boundless plains of the Southwest, has been perhaps the theme of more noble poetry, and the subject of more extravagant fable than any other of the denizens of ether.

This is he, and not any other, neither Halicetus, nor foul Polyborus, who has won for the race of eagles, in general, their character of kingly, noble, brave, and generous-this is he, who was elected, elector himself of her first king, the puissant bird of Rome, and was usurped, thereafter, by a greater than the greatest of the Cæsars, the Imperial Corsican. This is he, if we must take an eagle to be our crest at all, who should have sat sublime above the stars of our standard,—not the thieving, rapacious, greedy, carrion-devouring bald-pate, whom we have elevated to undue distinction.

There are not many points in which we cotton to Dr. Franklin, much less sympathize with his unchivalric, unromantic, hardfisted, money-making principles and propensities-with all due deference be it spoken. There was far too little veneration in his nature, to comport with what

we deem the essence of true greatness: but in this we do fully sympathize with him, that we have no touch of veneration or respect for the white-headed eagle.

Had men known as much about his ways and means in 1760, as they do nowadays, he certainly never would have hailed, fine-looking fellow as he is, as the republican bird of America.

Figuratively, as well as literally, it must out, our eagle has a white feather in his tail. I am sorry to admit it, but he is a glutton, a foul feeder, lazy, a bully, a coward, and a thief.

He has one good quality, common to all the eagles; he is a constant, faithful, honorable husband. He does not go about, like the tomtits and wrens, and such small fry, sending valentines, and picking up a new mistress every fourteenth of February; nor does he even, like some mortal monarchs whom we wot of, condescend to any morganatic marriage, but takes to himself one lawfully-wedded wife, and cleaves to her, through weal and wo, for thrice the length of ordinary human wedlocks, until when above a hundred years have flown, death, the inevitable, do them part.

But all this does the golden eagle likewise, and fights like a hero, and eats like a gentleman into the bargain.

It is scarcely necessary to state, that of all birds so rare, so shy, dwelling so remote from the abodes of man, seen only at intervals by the narrowest observers, making their nests and rearing their young in places nearly inaccessible to the human foot, living and dying in difficult and distant solitudes, it is no easy task to learn the habits minutely, even to distinguish the usual peculiarities of marking, and still more, the differences of the young birds— which, it is now ascertained, do not attain their full plumage until the sixth or seventh year-from the adults.

"The truth is "—says Wilson, the eloquent pioneer of American ornithology"the solitary habits of the eagle now before us, the vast inaccessible cliffs to which it usually retires, united with the scarcity of the species in those regions inhabited by man, all combine to render a peculiar knowledge of its manners very difficult to be ascertained. The author has once or twice observed this bird sailing along the Alpine declivities of the White Mountains of New Hampshire early in October, and again, over the Highlands of the Hudson River, not far from West Point. Its flight was easy, in high circuitous sweeps; its broad, white tail. tipped with brown, expanded like a fan. Near the settlement on Hudson's Bay. it is more common, and is said to prey upon hares, and the various species of grouse which abound there.

Buffon also observes that, though other eagles also prey upon hares, this species is a more fatal enemy to those timid animals, which are the constant object of their search, and the prey which they prefer."

It is to be observed that the ingenious and delightful author from whom the above is quoted-like Buffon, and indeed all authors. I believe, on natural history, until Temminck, who established them to be identical-has made two varieties, or species, the Ring-tailed and the Golden Eagle, out of one, the latter, bird; of which the former is the young which has not attained its perfect dress.

It is the immature male which is described as the Ring-tailed Eagle in the above passage. The same confusion exists between the adults and young of the White-headed Eagle, the latter of which has been erected into a separate species, under the name of the ossifrage or seaeagle. Into this error Wilson is likewise betrayed by adherence to authorities, though he evidently half suspects the identity of the two alleged species.

In this connection, it may be observed as peculiar, that of the Golden Eagle, which when mature is uniformly brown. the young is white-tailed, not losing this mark in its wild state until the third, in captivity till the sixth, or even seventh year; while of the White-headed the immature bird is uniformly dark, irregularly clouded with lighter spots, and does not acquire its peculiar markings until the fourth or fifth year.

These facts have been gained by careful observation of the birds in a state of confinement; by which means also the ideas of the ancients, who were much better naturalists, and more minute investigators than is usually supposed, concerning the longevity of eagles, have been fully verified. It has been the fortune of the writer to form a considerable acquaintance with birds of both these noble species in a state of captivity, and to witness personally some solutions to the questions in dispute.

The Golden Eagle, Aquila Chrysaetos, when mature, measures from beak to claw above three feet, and about seven and a half from wing to wing. The bill is deep blue, the cere yellow. The eyes are large. deep sunk, with a strong projecting brow; the irides of a bright golden yellow, full of clear lustre, which, when the owner is angry or excited, flashes into intolerable light. The feathers on the head and neck are long, narrow and pointed, and erectile into a sort of ruff when the bird is enraged; the general color of the plumage above and below is a rich chesnut brown.

glossed with a golden lustre, the crown of the head, nape, and back, darkening to almost perfect black; the quills are chocolate, with white shafts, the tail black, slightly barred with ash; the legs are feathered to the ankles; the feet bright yellow, with large, strong scales, and powerful, blue claws.

The whole port and demeanor of this bird is truly graceful and majestical; his ordinary position is erect, and his gaze heavenward. He is full of daring courage, entirely apart from his predatory rapacity, and will attack a man, or any animal which offers him an affront or injury when in confinement.

Concerning his longevity, some remarkable facts have come under my own observation; a singularly fine specimen of this bird having been kept, from a time beyond the memory of persons now living, by a more remote branch of my own family, on an old hall on the frontiers of Herefordshire; and being regarded, especially by the servants, with something nearly akin to superstitious awe.

This bird was more or less familiar to the from my seventh to my twentieth year; and I well remember the mingled fear and admiration with which I used to regard his fierce glee, the superb clashing of his great wings, the fire of his eyes, and his exulting shrieks in times of wild, tempestuous weather, in thunderstorms, and hurricanes of wind, especially. At such times, it appeared as if the long, light, but strong, chain could not control his awakened impulses; nor the courtyard, of which he had the undisputed range, contain his mounting spirit.

The heads of the family to which I refer had died young, and no distinct record existed of the period of the cagle's capture. His attendant, however, was an old gardener, who had been born, and lived to his eightieth year, in the house. He remembered no time when the eagle was not as then, and he did remember that his father, to whose office he succeeded, had spoken of the bird as being sent, a scarce fledged nestling, from North Wales, while he was yet a stripling, to the hall.

I saw that eagle last in about the year 1828; and I am well satisfied that he had then passed a century, although he showed no signs of age; and though I cannot assert that he is yet living, I do not doubt it, for I believe I should have heard of his death, had it occurred.

This eagle was fed, for the most part, on rabbits, which he slew himself-not by the way as an especial act of execution, but in process of devouring-and it is remarkable, that though he would clutch and eagerly swallow gobbets of raw meat,

if thrown to him, he would not touch dead birds or quadrupeds.

I cannot say, however, that his appetite was ever severely tempted by long fasting.

At another period, I had an opportunity of studying two Golden Eagles, a male and female, with a young year-old bird having the ring-tail plumage, which were kept in a large timber cage, embracing two considerable fir trees in its precincts.

The nest of these birds had been harried, among the crags near Greta Bridge; the young one was taken; and, by his means, the parents had been trapped, by the device well known to game preservers, as the circle.

At the time of my seeing these eagles, they had tasted nothing but water for nearly a week, during the whole of which time, a dead fox had lain untouched in their den. That they were nearly famished was evident from the fury with which they tore and devoured, almost alive, some unhappy pigeons, which were thrown to them. Whether in a free state the Golden Eagle will never partake of dead food cannot easily be proved; that he is most reluctant to do so, is certain; and I think it probable that, as most animals of prey are endowed with a power of resistance to the pangs of hunger proportionate to their avidity, this gallant bird would submit to great extremity before he would condescend to carrion.

An excellent sportsman and good naturalist, not nearly so well known in this country as he deserves to be, Colquhoun of Luss, who from his abode in the wildest part of the Scottish Highlands has had great opportunities of observing eagles, confirms, from personal knowledge, many of the facts stated above-especially the cruel mode of killing, the hare-diet, and the peculiarity of the young bird being ring-tailed.

By the way, it is not here unworthy of remark, that, in a country so distant as Greece, an age so remote as that distinguished by the battles of Marathon and Platæa, nearly 500 years B. C., the poet Eschylus had noted the peculiar prey of the warlike birds of Jupiter, and even their distinctive coloring, while it is even open to doubt whether he was not aware of the immature condition of the whitetailed bird, which he assimilates to the younger and less warlike of the Atreid princes.

As the passage is curious, in more ways than one, I have quoted it entire from a recent translation of the fine play which contains it, published in the university press at Harvard.

"What time the impetuous bird sent out The Achaians' two-throned power,

And Hellas' martial flower,

In league resolved and stout

Sent them with puissant spear, and potent hand,
Against the Teucrian land,

The king of birds to the king of ships appearing
The royal palace nearing.

On the spear-hand, conspicuous in place,

One black and white-tailed one

A teeming hare devouring with her race,
Their last course briefly run."

Letting this passage go merely for what it is worth, as the illustration of another and entirely foreign subject, it is at least remarkable, as indicating the perfect identity of appearance, habit and association of the fierce hare slaughterers, at a place and time so remote.

The witness I shall now call to the bar is no poet nor dreamer, but a stalwart kilted Highlander, as apt with the rifle as the pen, and duly qualified, as a Duinhewassal, or Highland gentleman nigh of kin to the chief of Luss, to stick the single feather of the war-eagle in his own blue bonnet.

Hear to the author of "The Moor and the Loch." "The Golden Eagle is not"he says "nearly so great a foe to the farmer as to the sportsman; for although a pair having young will occasionally pounce upon very young and unprotected lambs, and continue their depredations until scared away, the more usual prey consists of hares, rabbits, and grouse-a fact sufficiently proved by the feathers and bones found in their eyries. A pair used to build every year in Balquidder, another in Glen Oyle, and a third in Glenartney. The shepherds seldom molested the old ones; but by means of ladders, at considerable risk, took the young and sold them. One of these, brought to Callander, not long ago, when scarcely full fledged, would seize a live cat thrown to it for food, and bearing it away with the greatest ease tear it to pieces, the cat unable to offer any resistance, and uttering most horrid yells.

When two eagles are in pursuit of a hare, they show great tact-it is exactly as if two well-matched greyhounds were turning a hare; as one rises, the other descends, until poor puss is tired out; when one of them succeeds in catching her, it fixes a claw in her back, and holds by the ground with the other, striking all the time with the beak. I have several times seen eagles coursed in the same way by carrion crows and ravens, whose territory they had invaded; the eagle generally seems to have enough to do in keeping clear of his sable foes, and every now and then gives a shrill whistle or scream.

"If the eagle is at all alarmed when in pursuit of his prey, he instantly bears it off alive. Where Alpine hares are plenti

ful, it is no unfrequent occurrence, when the sportsman starts one, for an eagle to pounce down and carry it off, struggling, with the greatest ease. In this case, he always allows the hare to run a long way out of shot before he strikes, and is apt to miss altogether. When no enemy is near, he generally adopts the more sure way of tiring out his game.

"The color of the golden-eagle differs much. Some are so dark as almost to justify the name of the "black-eagle,' which they are often called in the Highlands-in others, the golden tint is very bright, and many are even of a muddy brown. I do not think that the age of the bird has any thing to do with this, as I have seen young and old equally variable. The sure mark of a young one is the degree of white on the tail: the first year the upper half is pure, which gradually becomes less so, by streaks of brown-about the third or fourth year no white is to be seen."

This I presume, with the facts I have adduced concerning the young ring-tail taken from the nest of golden parents, would be in itself sufficient to establish the identity of the species; but I presume this, among ornithologists, is sufficiently done already.

There are a class of people who choose to believe their eyes only, without using what small modicum of brains they may chance to possess, in the endeavor to comprehend what their eyes do actually see— these people, who are of the same breedwith the sapient Jerseymen who are ready to swear that the Sora rail become frogs in winter; and with that learned Theban of the Massachusetts legislature, who insisted that snipe and woodcock are the same bird, and after careful examination of Wilson, Audubon, &c., still persisted-these people, I say, will doubtless insist that, inasmuch as one of these birds has a white tail, and the other has not, they are not one, but two.

For geniuses of this order, however, I do not write;-to those, however, who reason as they read, I have a word or two of explanation, lest they attach a meaning, other than that I intended, to one phrase I have used, and which cannot well be altered, although it is in some degree liable to misapprehension. This word said, I shall close a paper which has already come nigh to transcending limits. premising only that if the readers of Putnam wax not weary of Ornithomanes and his, at least, harmless mania, he has yet a few matters to discourse anent the Bald-headed Eagle, and his most unwilling purveyor, the fish-hawk or osprey, of whom more anon.

In speaking of the Golden Eagle, above, in relation to his devouring his prey without previously slaughtering it, I adopted the word cruel; I wish it, however, to be understood that I intended the application to the sufferings of the unfortunate victim, and by no means to the disposition of the slaughterer, whose carnivorous instincts and modes of satiating them are alike from on high.

The quality of cruelty-that is to say, of inflicting pain for the pleasure of inflicting it is unknown to the brute creation; to kill, is the necessity of the carnivora, to torture, the peculiarity of man.

It is no mercy that leads the warbler to kill the caterpillar or worm before swallowing it, but merely a matter of precaution, since, devouring its prey whole, to devour it alive would be at least untoward.

It is no cruelty in the eagle that it dis

members its prey living, instead of fracturing its skull or decapitating it with a single blow, as some of the falcons do, but a peculiarity arising from the fact that the talons of the eagle, which are not necessarily mortal weapons, and not his beak, are his instruments of offence; and. secondly, that the inferior size and power of his victims do not oblige him to kill, in order to conquer them.

No animal, however ferocious, kills wantonly, or beyond the extent of his appetites. If the tiger or the domestic cat seem to torment, it is only that they desire to detain their captive until their hunger shall prompt them to destroy.

In the whole range of God's creation, from the eagle to the humming-bird, from the lion to the lamb, there is neither wickedness nor cruelty but that which arises from perverted reason.

THE