BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 197 



the abundant use of smaller ones interlocked, and further 

 secured by coarse fresh twigs, over which almost any availa- 

 ble material like hay, moss, leaves, and what-not, are deposited, 

 and more and more from year to year as its reoccupation is con- 

 tinued. They lay two dirty yellowish-white eggs, and when the 

 young are hatched, no sprigs in the bird kingdom are more 

 royally cared for until fairly able to take care of themselves. 

 In selecting their location for their nests in the ordinary 

 forest they almost uniformly choose a tree on a kind of obso- 

 lete island, so surrounded with morass that approach to it on 

 the ground is difficult or impossible, but where large islands 

 covered with large trees are found in considerable lakes, they 

 will prefer these. I have never found more than one brood 

 raised in one nest in a season. Their feeding habits are too 

 well known to call for any special mention. 



Almost from the earliest observations of white men, and 

 from long before according to Indian tradition, they have 

 reared their young on the islands m Lake Minnetonka until 

 very recently. Fifteen years of personal observation in the 

 forest west of that lake have afforded me opportunity to locate 

 several nests, from which I have had the young eaglets 

 brought to me to "raise for pets" again and again. A well 

 earned and enduring respect for raptorial birds in general has 

 enabled me to decline all such proffers, but others have ac- 

 cepted them, so that for many years after I became a citizen of 

 Minneapolis it was no unusual thing to see individuals of the 

 species chained, like a monkey, to a box or outhouse in different 

 places in the city. 



Mille Lacs, Otter Tail, Big lake, and many others, have had 

 the credit of being alike favorite breeding places of the Bald- 

 headed Eagle. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Large; bill large, strong, straight at base, rather abruptly 

 hooked; wings long; tarsi short; head, tail and upper coverts 

 white; entire other plumage brownish-black, generally with 

 the edges of the feathers paler; bill, feet and iris yellow. 



Length (female), 35 to 40; wing, 23 to 25; tail 14 to 15 



Habitat, temperate North America. 



