wood enough to keep fires, I designed to be pleased.
But, surrounded with forests, can you believe
that wood is not to be had, because people can-
not be found to cut and cart it.
We have, indeed, come into a new country.

"The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished; and all withinside, except the plastering, has been done since B. came. We have not the least fence, yard, or convenience without, and the great unfinished Audience Room, (East Room) I make a drying

wrote a letter to Mrs. Smith, her daughter, on the 25th of that month; after informing her of the fact that they were lost in the woods between Baltimore and Washington, and a description of the desolate appearance of everything she saw on the road, she says: "The house is on a grand and superb scale, requiring about thirty servants to attend and keep the apartments in proper order, and perform the ordinary business of the house and stables-an establishment very well proportioned to the President's salary. The lighting the apart-room of to hang up clothes in. ments from the kitchen to parlors and cham- It is a beautiful spot, capable of any improvebers is a tax indeed; and the fires we are ment, and the more I view it the more I am obliged to keep to secure us from daily agues delighted with it." is another very cheering comfort. To assist us If Mrs. Adams actually kept thirty servants, in this great castle, and render less attendance and that in a place where, from its location necessary, bells are wholly wanting, not one and newness, and the fact that most persons of single one being hung through the whole house, condition in the vicinity owned their own and promises are all you can obtain. This is servants, they must have been far from the so great an inconvenience that I know not best; and her position, domestically considered, what to do, or how to do it. The ladies from far from enviable. There are bells now, and, Georgetown and in the city, have many of as we have stated, most of the conveniences them visited me. Yesterday I returned fifteen which Mrs. Adams complained were wanting. visits. But no compari- The customary establishments of the Presisons; if they put me up bells, and let me have dents, which we think will bring a smile to the

**

faces of our trans-Atlantic cousins, is a steward, lines were drawn, he joined the Democratic butler, chief cook, usually an artiste, coachman, party. In August, 1814, when the enemy engroom, four or five dining-room waiters, assist- tered the city, Mr. Madison had a narrow escape ant cooks, laundry women and chambermaids. from capture-he fled into Maryland, and The gardners, dcor-keepers and laborers, of thence to Virginia. Mrs. Madison remained in whom there are, with watchmen, about fifteen, the house till the last, and even cut out from are hired by the Government. The expenses its frame a picture of Washington, and saved of the establishment, even with the gardners, some other articles. &c., found by the Government, are very heavy, and no gentleman can retire from the office with funds enough to pay his fare home. Twenty-five thousand dollars, fifty-six, and even thirty years ago, was equivalent to $100,000 in the increased necessary expenditure of the President's house, and the immense advance in all the necessaries of life now. Most of the Foreign Ministers at Washington, of the first grade, receive very much larger salaries than the President.

Mr. Madison also remained eight years, and was succeeded by Mr. Monroe, another patriot of the Revolution, elected by the Democratic party. Mr. Monroe also served two terms, and was the last of those who had been participants in the ante-revolutionary movements

John Quincy Adams was elected by the House of Representatives over Gen. Jackson, who had received the largest number of votes in the Electoral College. Mr. Adams entertained liberally and hospitably; and from his high social qualifications, the great variety and extent of his acquirements, and his agreeable family, his reign in the White House was extremely popular.

During Mr. Adams's administration the country divided into two great political parties called Federalist, because that party believed in the necessity of strengthening the Federal Government, and Democratic, who insisted upon confining the federal in the narrowest possible limits, and in a rigid construction of the constitution. Hamilton was the head of one party, Jefferson of the other. Mr. Adams offered himself, through his friends, for reëlection, but was defeated by Jefferson, after serving

but one term.

Gen. Jackson was the next tenant, much against the will of some political enemies, but in accordance with a large majority of the Electoral College. Gen. Jackson, in his hightoned manners, and with his remarkable dignity and grace, has never been surpassed by any gentleman, distinguished as they have been, who has filled the office. The stirring

Mr. Jefferson did not, we are informed orally by an old and intelligent citizen of Washington, for we can find no record of it, occupy the White House till several months after his inauguration. He had it completed, and the grounds put in order; it is said, upon what authority we know not, that the stone wall on the south side of the President's grounds was erected by Mr. Jefferson at his own expense. There is no question of the fact, that with his knowledge of agriculture and horticulture, his

taste and energy, much was done, and that the general plan of the grounds and the disposition of the trees emanated from him. He continued eight years, or two terms, in the President's house. He was succeeded, declining a reelection, by Mr. Madison. It was during the administration of this gentleman that the second war with Great Britain occurred. He, too, was one of the Revolutionary patriots-an active participant in the various conventions and in Congress, and a warm supporter of the Constitution; with Hamilton and another distinguished citizen, he wrote that able work upon the theory, practice and duties of our Government, the "Federalist." When party

66

of the species. Most unfortunately, many state- | following dimensions : Length, 3 feet 7 ments made by this author have proved to be inches; extent of wings, 10 feet 2 inches; bill erroneous, which fact, and the egotistical and 34 inches; length of wing, when folded, 32 pretentious style of all his writings, have ren- | inches; tail, 15 inches; tarsus, 4 inches." dered it quite impossible for him to be regarded with entire confidence by naturalists, or entitled to high popular regard.

No specimen possessing all the characters of this bird, as given by Mr. Audubon, has ever come under the notice of any other naturalist; and late European ornithologists have regarded it generally as the young of the Bald Eagle, but in some instances as a pure invention. It is useless to attribute any feeling of envy or ill will to naturalists on this account or as an explanation; nothing of the kind exists. As an artist, which is Mr. Audubon's main merit, he has been far surpassed in Europe, and certainly equalled in this country. As a naturalist his works are very doubtful authority, and contain more errors and misstatements than those of any other modern author, and have latterly been left in total neglect.

Though, as we have stated, no bird is known which is exactly as described by Mr. Audubon, yet we are of opinion that there are two species of White Headed Eagles inhabiting the States on the Atlantic sea-board. They appear to be constantly different in size, and we are not without suspicion that one is the Northern and the other a Southern bird. The larger has the bill much shorter, and very much as represented in Mr. Audubon's plate of the Washington Eagle; and, in fact, is in all respects that bird, except that it has not the large scales in front of the tarsus continued without interruption to the toes, as represented in the plate to which we allude. That character we have never seen in any species of Eagle, and is unknown to naturalists.

Habitation-North America. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Phila. (?)

5. HALIAETUS GROENLANDICUS. (Brehm.)

THE GREENLAND EAGLE.

This Eagle, we can only briefly state, is an inhabitant of Greenland, and has been usually regarded by authors on the natural history of that country as identical with the Sea Eagle of Europe, (H. Albicilla.) It also considerably resembles the Bald Eagle of America, but has the head of a uniform dull yellow, instead of white. It nests in cliffs and precipices, and subsists principally on fish.

Specimens from Greenland in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy are apparently different from the European Sea Eagle. The young are exceedingly similar to those of the Bald Eagle, and can only be distinguished, on careful comparison, by its larger size and lighter color.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.Larger than the Bald Eagle. Adult-Tail white; head and neck pale yellowish brown, in some specimens very light; all other parts of plumage dark umber brown; quills nearly black; bill, feet and irides yellow. YoungerEntire plumage dark brown, with the tail mottled with white. Total length, female, about 40 inches; wing, 27 inches; tail, 12 inches. Male smaller.

Habitation-Greenland. Specimen in Mus. Acad., Philadelphia.

3. GENUS PANDION. Savigny's Nat. Hist. of Egypt, I, p. 95, (1809.)

THE OSPREYS.-Smaller than the preceding Eagles. Bill short, curved from the base, hooked, compressed; wings very long; tarsi short, very thick and strong, and covered with small circular scales; claws large, very sharp. Contains three or four species nearly allied, in

At present, however, we have not had opportunities nor facilities for fully investigating this interesting question, and must content ourselves with expressing an opinion that the larger of the two supposed species is the Wash-habiting various parts of the world. ington Eagle of Audubon, though, as we have said, it does not present all the characters of the latter. Numerous specimens of this larger bird are in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy, one of which is figured in the present article.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.— Larger than the Bald Eagle; bill shorter and more abruptly curved; entire plumage dark brown, mixed with dull yellowish. Quills nearly black; tail dark brown, more or less mottled with white. Mr. Audubon gives the

1. PANDION CAROLINENSIS. (Gmelin.)

THE FISH HAWK-THE AMERICAN OSPREY.

This is one of the most remarkable of the American Eagles. Unlike his relatives, described in the preceding pages, the present bird possesses strong but comparatively slow flight, and subsists entirely on the product of his own industry and perseverance. He is exclusively a fisherman, molesting no other description of animals.

Of all the rapacious birds of North America the Fish Hawk is the only one not destroyed

ed., I, pl. 15. pl. 8, fig. 18.