One of the most remarkable of these mysterious birds is the White Eagle, represented by Du Pratz as inhabiting Louisiana, of whose description of which the following is a translation: “The Eagle, the king of birds, is smaller than the Eagle of the Alps, but it is much handsomer, being _almost entirely white_, and having only the extremities of its wings black. As it is rather rare, this is a second reason for rendering it esteemed amongst the people of the country, who buy at a high price the feathers of its wings to make the ornament of the symbol of peace, and which is the fan of which I have spoken in giving a description of the Calumet.” Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, II. p. 109, Paris, 1758. On the faith of this description, the species supposed to be alluded to has been named _Falco candidus_ by Gmelin. If not an albino, there is a possibility that it is a species of a group of white hawks, of rather large size, which are principally found in South America, and one species of which (_Buteo Ghiesbrectü Dubus_,) is known to inhabit Mexico. The latter would agree very well with Du Pratz’s description, so far as it goes. That excellent and reliable naturalist, the Prince Maximilian of Wied, whose Travels in the interior of North America contain much valuable information in nearly all departments of Zoology, mentions a “Grey Eagle of enormous dimensions,” I. pp. 203, 214, (Raise in das innere Nord-America, Quarto, Coblenz, 1839.)[2] But there is no end to the accounts of strange Eagles given by travellers and naturalists. Some of them may have reference to peculiar species which have in later times escaped attention, but the probability is, that they more frequently allude to accidental varieties, or that the authors describe from such reports as they had heard at second hand, or fell into error from insufficient personal observation. Several of the naturalists who have recently visited California have informed us that they saw occasionally large species of Eagles, or other large rapacious birds, of which they did not succeed in procuring specimens, nor in approaching within sufficiently short distance to be enabled to examine them satisfactorily. We have introduced the extraordinary bird which is the subject of our present article, thus early into our work, for the purpose mainly of asking attention to a most remarkable and interesting species heretofore apparently entirely unknown to American Ornithological writers, and also on account of its similarity, in some respects, to one of the most important of Audubon’s discoveries, the Washington Eagle. This celebrated author was not acquainted with the bird now before us.