122 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Here she remained for nine minutes, 

 uttering no sound but scanning the sur- 

 roundings closely. She then flew away, 

 circling about w^ith a shrill call, and at 

 12:17 returned and alighted on a dead 

 pine near-by. Remaining here for four 

 minutes, she flew up, hovered over the 

 nest, called twice, then circled about a 

 few times and returned to the near-by 

 tree wliere she looked about for a few 

 seconds ; flew to her perch over the nest, 

 and after again scrutinizing the nest and 

 its surroundings, hopped quietly onto it. 

 She seemed still restless and at the snap 

 of the camera flew oif and soared about, 

 soon returning to the tree close by where 

 she perched for a few moments ; then 

 •was off with more circling, after which 

 she alighted near the nest and again 

 dropped onto it at 12:35. Almost im- 

 mediately leaving, she resumed her circ- 

 ling for about five minutes, when she 

 returned to the near-by tree. After mak- 

 ing a few exposures with the Graflex 

 (cajniera as the eagle soared overhead I 

 emerged from the blind, — feeling some- 

 what cramped and uncomfortably warm 

 from my confinement of over two hours, 

 but pleased with my observations. The 

 watchful bird had spent about a fourth 

 of this time upon her nest, and in her 

 restlessness and anxiety had left and 

 returned to it sixteen times. 



At one o'clock there was a tempera- 

 ture of 74 and a fresh east wind. We 

 lunched at our friends' house and re- 

 turned to the eagles' nest at one-thirty, 

 the bird leaving quietly when we were 

 a hundred yards away. I at once made 

 ready to ascend the tree, which was a 

 •dead long-leaf pine eight feet in circum- 

 :ference. Climbing to the top where the 

 huge nest was set among the forking 

 branches was not an especially difficult 

 task, but I now found myself beneath 

 a mass of sticks measuring seven feet in di- 

 ameter and twelve feet high, and the prob- 

 lem seemed to be how to get around and 

 above it. After working on one course 

 for half an hour and being compelled to 

 abandon it on account of the rottenness 

 of the branches, I managed finally, by 

 throwing a rope over several of the 

 limbs, to pull myself, up ; and standing 

 on the uppermost brantch coming out 

 of the side of the mass I peered over the 

 top and into the nest. I was immediately 

 greeted by a young eaglet, which, utter- 

 ing long peeping cries, scrambled to the 

 edsre of the nest to meet me. I judged 



it to be about two weeks old. It was 

 covered with a soft grayish down, had 

 snapping black eyes and a black beak, 

 and although not strong enough to stand 

 upon its feet, it insisted upon working 

 itself to the edge of the nest nearest me 

 after I had continually replaced it to- 

 ward the middle. 



This nest was evidently a very old one 

 showing where it had been added to and 

 repaired year after year. It was a solid 

 mass of coarse sticks, some of which 

 were over two and a half feet long and 

 an inch or more in thickness, and the 

 huge bulk must have weighed more than 

 five hundred pounds. There was but a 

 very slight depression in the top and no 

 attempt at a lining of softer material. A 

 fe^v clumps of coarse grass and a bit of 

 11 loss lay among the sticks near the up- 

 ])fcr edge, and scattered about through 

 the mass were a few fish 'ooiits, bird 

 skulls, etc. The remains of a fresh, 

 partly eaten catfish, about a foot long, 

 lay in the nest beside the eaglet. 



J.owering a rope, I drew up niv cam- 

 ' ras one at a time, and made several 

 attempts to photograph the young bird, 

 though I soon found that maneuvering 

 about with such apparatus sixty feet in 

 the air, — with nothing above 3'ou to h oid 

 onto and your subject determined to 

 walk into the camera, — was not condu- 

 cive to pictorial success. I finally tried 

 focussing on an object the approximate 

 distance from the lens and holding the 

 camera up over my head to get it far 

 enough away from this inquisitive young 

 chicken, — and thus out of five attempts 

 secured one passable picture. 



The view from this eyrie was su])erb. 

 There was no chance for an enemy to 

 approach unobserved by the keen-sight- 

 ed birds, as they could see for a long dis- 

 tance in every direction. Considerably 

 above the tops of the surrounding trees, 

 they would be first to receive the breath 

 of the new dawn, while away to the west- 

 ward over the sparkling gulf the last 

 glow of the sunset would be theirs. 

 Even now as I looked, the great fiery 

 ball was dropping into the midst of those 

 rippling waters, — its slanting rays still 

 lighting up the nest with a glow, though 

 it had disappeared from view from the 

 ground beneath some minutes before. 



After holding up the eaglet to the view 

 of my companions below, I carefully re- 

 placed it in the nest and descended to 

 the ground, having been in the tree two 

 hours and fifteen minutes. Although I 

 was prepared for trouble from the pa- 



