BALD EAGLE 105 



on it. The only chance for the victim of the attack is to 

 let go of the fish and flee, while the Eagle, with a speed 

 and accuracy almost beyond belief, catches the prey 

 before it reaches the water or the ground. 



Bald Eagles are filthy in their habits ; they may be 

 seen along the Gulf shore with Vultures and Caracara, 

 feasting on the carcasses of rotten fish, horses or cows, 

 although the Eagles can and often do capture their prey 

 of living mammal or fish. The bird, moreover, is an 

 unscrupulous and persistent thief; it is capable of ig- 

 noring weather conditions of cold and rain and will 

 remain in any locality where food is obtainable. 



During certain seasons of the year Bald Eagles feed 

 on the dead salmon lining the banks of the streams enter- 

 ing the Northern Pacific Ocean, gorging themselves until 

 unable to fly, and thus are easily captured by the Indians, 

 bears and lynxes. 



While hunting the Kodiak brown bear along the 

 shore of Kodiak Island, I saw hundreds of Bald Eagles. 

 Many were perched in dead trees that, from a distance, 

 looked like a giant snowball bush with blooming flowers 

 all over it. Unfortunately, a bounty has been placed on 

 the scalps of Bald Eagles and before long flocks of them 

 will be a sight of the past. In Alaska, especially, this 

 asset of the country should receive legal protection, as 

 a part of every attractive landscape the visitor beholds 

 as he travels along the shore. 



Near St. Petersburg, Florida, there are a number 

 of Eagles' nests, and many a winter sojourner who has 

 never seen a real bird's nest in all its magnitude visits 

 these nest-sites and returns with new experiences to 

 relate to the people at home. Thus the Bald Eagle of 

 Florida, also, is an asset worth preserving. 



In company with Frank Hodges, of Olathe, Kansas, 

 I visited an eyry in Florida. We secured the services 

 of a painter, his automobile dray and ladders, and drove 

 eight miles out to this nest. It was ninety feet from 

 the ground, in a yellow pine tree. Old settlers in that 

 vicinity told me that the nest had been occupied yearly 

 for over forty seasons. After the ladders had been 

 anchored to the tree the nest was reached and the ac- 

 companying picture of the young full-grown bird was 



