52 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



connection, that this occurred at the coldest period of the season, when the ground 

 was covered with snow to an unusual depth, and when the thermometer indicated a 

 temperature at that time frequently as low as 15 helow zero. With the exception of 

 the Common Crossbill (Loxia americana), a pair of which birds once constructed a 

 nest on a leafless elm early in March, in Vermont, this is the only instance I have 

 ever known of incubation so apparently unseasonable. 



The apathetic conduct of the parent birds, especially of the female, is also worthy 

 of notice. Taken in connection with Sir John Richardson's account of a most un- 

 pareutal lack of spirit on a similar occasion, it inclines me to the belief that Mr. 

 Audubon gives our White-headed Eagles more credit than they are entitled to, for 

 parental devotion and courage. 1 Certain it is, I have seen the Common Brown 

 Thrush, the Cat-Bird, and even the little Black-capped Titmouse, evince more of 

 both qualities, in defence of their young, than was shown on this occasion by these 

 recreant specimens of our " national emblem." If we may infer its general character 

 from these two instances, the White-headed Eagle is not only an unscrupulous rob- 

 ber, plundering the Fish-Hawks and the Gulls of the fruits of their honest industry, 

 but is also a rank coward, whom not even parental instinct can stimulate to a re- 

 spectable manifestation of courage. 



Its nest is usually of great size, composed of sticks from three to five feet in 

 length, pieces of turf, weeds, and moss. Its diameter is about five feet, and its 

 depth is not unfrequently as great. In the warmer localities, where it breeds, the 

 pair usually frequent the same nest throughout the year, and make it their perma- 

 nent place of resort. This is also true, probably, wherever this Eagle remains 

 throughout the year. 



The eggs are usually two, sometimes three or four, in number, are nearly spheri- 

 cal, equally rounded at either end, and are more or less granulated on their surface. 

 Their color is a dull white, unspotted, but often stained by incubation to a duty 

 white or a light soiled drab. Two eggs in my collection present the following meas- 

 urements: length 3 inches, breadth 2 T \; length 2 inches, breadth 2||. The 

 first was obtained in New Jersey by Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist ; the latter 

 by Dr. Trudeau, in Louisiana. The egg represented in the plate (Plate IV, fig. 37) 

 was taken from a nest in Texas, by Dr. Heermann. 



1 " Of this I assured myself by climbing to the nest every day in succession, during her temporary 

 absence, a rather perilous undertaking wlien the lird is sitting. The attachment of the parents to the 

 young is very great when the latter are yet of a small size ; and to ascend to the nest at this time would 

 be dangerous." (Birds of America, 8vo, I, pp. 61, 62.) 



