This eagle is common in Europe, and is probably the same with the individual known in the United States, by the name of the

AMERICAN FISH-HAWK..

We shall therefore introduce in this place, the description which our naturalists have given of the latter bird.

This is a formidable, vigorous winged, and well known bird, which subsists altogether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, creeks, and rivers; procuring his prey by his own skill and industry. It is doubtless the most numerous of all its genus within the United States. It penetrates far into the interior of the country, up our large rivers, and their head waters. It may be said to line the seacoast from Georgia to Canada.

The first appearance of the fish-hawk in spring is welcomed by the fishermen, as the happy signal of the approach of those vast shoals of herring, shad, &c., that enter our rivers in such prodigious multitudes. They see it active and industrious like themselves; inoffensive to the productions of their farms; building with confidence, and without the least disposition to concealment, in the middle of their fields, and along their fences; and returning regularly year after year to their former abode. Their nests are built of large sticks, corn-stalks, sea-weed, pieces of wet turf, and mullen stalks, lined with dry grass; the whole forming a mass very observable at half a mile's distance, and large enough to fill a cart, and form no inconsiderable a load for a horse. These materials are all put strongly together. During the time the female is sitting, the male frequently supplies her with fish. On the appearance of the young, the zeal and watchfulness of the parents are extreme. They stand guard, and go off to fish alternately; one parent being always within a short distance of the nest. On the near approach of any person, the hawk utters a plaintive whistling note, which

becomes shriller as she takes to wing and sails around, sometimes making a rapid descent, as if aiming directly for you, but checking her course, and sweeping past at a short distance over head, her wings making a loud whizzing in the air.

The flight of the fish-hawk, his manœuvres while in search of fish, and his manner of seizing his prey, are deserving of particular notice. In leaving the nest, he usually flies direct till he comes to the sea, then sails around in easy curving lines, turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings; his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature or bend of wing, distinguishing him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from one to two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitering the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness, that he appears fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim had escaped him. He now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zigzag descent; and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, after carrying a short distance, he probably drops or yields up to the bald eagle, and again ascends by easy spiral circles, to the higher regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species.

At once from this sublime ærial flight he descends like a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges; bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he always carries head foremost; and having risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do, and directs his heavy, laborious course directly for land. A shad was once taken from a fish-hawk near Great Egg harbor, on which he had begun to regale himself, the remainder of which weighed six pounds. Another hawk at the same place was seen with a flounder in his grasp, which struggled and shook him so that he dropped it on the shore. The flounder was picked up, and served a whole family for dinner. It is singular that the hawk never descends to pick up a fish which he happens to drop either on the land or on the water.

CALLED the erne in Scotland, is usually above three feet in length, and the wings, when expanded, measure seven or eight feet. The bill, yellow at the base, is generally of a bluish black color towards the extremity. A blackish brown, deeper above than beneath, is the common hue of the bird, which is relieved by numerous white spots on the breast and under parts. Of his wings the larger feathers are nearly black, but those of the tail have a less deep tinge. It is found in the northern regions of both continents, even to the very margin of the polar ice, and in Asia as far to the south as the Caspian Sea. Fishing is the sea eagle's regular means of subsistence, but, on occasion, it will pick up dead fish on the beach, and attack seals and land animals. "Few exhibitions in nature," says the author of the British Naturalist, "are finer than the fishing of this powerful bird. Not adapted for walking into the shallow water for prey like the heron, the sea eagle courses over the surface. From her unapproachable haunt in the trees or the crags, the latter is, when she can obtain it, her most admired residence-she darts forth with the straightness and fleetness of an arrow, and as she glides high in the air, scanning the expanse of miles with her clear and unerring vision, one or two motions of her wings are sufficient to elevate her almost above the reach of human eyes, or bring her down close to the

1 Falco albicilla, LIN.

surface of the water. When her prey appears within her reach, she pausesnot an instant, but raising her broad wings upwards against the air, and thus taking advantage of the elasticity of both, shoots down as if discharged from a bow or an air-gun, makes the cliff echo to her cherup, and dashes upon the water with the same thunder and spray, as if a lightning-rent fragment had been precipitated from the height. For an stant the column of spray conceals her, but she soon ascends, bearing the prey in her talons, and a brief space elapses before she is lost in the distance."

As this eagle will eat carrion, it is used as a bait to catch him in Sutherlandshire. A minature house, or at least the wall part of it, is built on ground frequented by the eagle, and an opening left at the foot of the wall sufficient for the egress of the bird. To the outside of this opening a bit of strong cord is fixed, with a noose formed on one end, and the other end returning through the noose. After all this operation is finished, a piece of carrion is thrown into the house, which the eagle finds out and perches upon. It eats voraciously; and when it is fully satiated, it never thinks of taking its flight immediately upwards, unless disturbed, provided it can find an easier way to get out of the house; for it appears that it is not easy for it to begin its flight but in an oblique direction; consequently it walks deliberately out at the opening left for it, and the noose catches hold of and fairly strangles it.

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE.1

THE discovery of this noble American bird, we owe to Mr J. J. Audubon, who considers it a new species, never before described by naturalists. There are many, however, who regard it as the sea eagle of Europe just described. Mr Audubon's discovery is thus related in his own words.

"It was on a winter's evening, in the month of February, 1814, that, for. the first time in my life, I had an opportunity of seeing this rare and noble bird; and never shall I forget the delight it gave me. Not even Herschel, when he discovered the famous planet which bears his name, could have experienced more happy feelings. To have something new to relate, to become yourself a contributor to science, must excite the proudest emotions of the human heart.

"We were on a trading voyage, ascending the Upper Mississippi,-the keen winter blasts whistled over our heads, and the cold from which I suffered had, in a great degree, extinguished the deep interest which, at other seasons, this river has been wont to awake in me. I lay stretched beside our patroon; the safety of the cargo was forgotten, and the only thing that

1 Falco Washingtonianus, AUDUBON.

called forth my attention was the multitude of ducks, of different species, accompanied by vast flocks of swans, which from time to time would pass us. My patroon, a Canadian, had been engaged many years in the fur trade; he was a man of much intelligence, who, perceiving that birds had engaged my curiosity, seemed only anxious to find some new object to divert me. The sea eagle flew over us. How fortunate!' he exclaimed; this is what I could have wished. Look, Sir! the great sea eagle, and the only one I have seen since left the lakes.' I was instantly on my feet, and, having observed it attentively, concluded, as I lost it in the 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 they had killed, when the lakes were closed by the ice, but, when open, they would dive in the daytime after fish, and snatch them up in the manner of the fishing hawk; 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 exuvia scattered below. His account will be found to accord with the observations which I had afterwards an opportunity of making myself. Being convinced that the bird was unknown to naturalists, I felt particularly anxious to learn its habits, and in what particulars it