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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_2kK4ukb3FoQ6fqOozcRzog) Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable For those of you who heard this morning's CBC radio talk about Canada's = national bird, including Ian's reference to Benjamin Franklin's early = dislike of the choice of the Bald (White-headed) Eagle as the American = bird symbol, here's the passage from John James Audubon that concludes = his discussion of the eagle. Audubon seemed conflicted, because he = praises the eagle early in his write-up, but he builds up to the = following: In concluding this account of the White-headed Eagle, suffer me, kind = reader, to say how much I grieve that it should have been selected as = the Emblem of my Country. The opinion of our great Franklin on this = subject, as it perfectly coincides with my own, I shall here present to = you. "For my part," says he, in one of his letters, "I wish the Bald = Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a = bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you = may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for = himself, he watches the labour of the Fishing-Hawk; and when that = diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest = for the support of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him, = and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good = case, but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is = generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward: the = little King Bird, not bigger than a Sparrow, attacks him boldly, and = drives him out of the district. He is, therefore, by no means a proper = emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven = all the King Birds from our country; though exactly fit for that order = of knights which the French call Chevaliers d'Industrie."=20 Here's a link to the whole Bald Eagle description by Audubon: http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html= --Boundary_(ID_2kK4ukb3FoQ6fqOozcRzog) Content-type: text/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18904"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>For those of you who heard this morning's CBC radio talk about Canada's national bird, including Ian's reference to Benjamin Franklin's early dislike of the choice of the Bald (White-headed) Eagle as the American bird symbol, here's the passage from John James Audubon that concludes his discussion of the eagle. Audubon seemed conflicted, because he praises the eagle early in his write-up, but he builds up to the following:</DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM></EM></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><EM>In concluding this account of the White-headed Eagle, suffer me, kind reader, to say how much I grieve that it should have been selected as the Emblem of my Country. The opinion of our great Franklin on this subject, as it perfectly coincides with my own, I shall here present to you. "For my part," says he, in one of his letters, "I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the Fishing-Hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this injustice, he is never in good case, but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward: the little King Bird, not bigger than a Sparrow, attacks him boldly, and drives him out of the district. He is, therefore, by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the King Birds from our country; though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call Chevaliers d'Industrie."</EM> </DIV> <DIV>Here's a link to the whole Bald Eagle description by Audubon:</DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A href="http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html">http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> --Boundary_(ID_2kK4ukb3FoQ6fqOozcRzog)--
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