324 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



son, he says, is quite prolonged, beginning sometimes in October, but 

 usually not until November or later, and lasting all through winter 

 and spring, even into June. There are two good reasons to account 

 for such early nesting: First, it is desirable that the eaglets, which 

 grow very slowly, have time to develop their protecting plumage 

 before hot weather comes on early in spring ; the hot sun might prove 

 disastrous for the tender downy young, unless they were constantly 

 brooded by their parents. Second, it is easier for the eagles to secure 

 the large amount of food required by the eaglets during winter, when 

 coots and other water fowl are abundant. 



Mr. Nicholson mentions only three kinds of trees used in Florida, 

 pines, cj'^presses, and mangroves, with a decided preference for pines. 

 He says the height from the groimd varies from 20 to over 100 feet 

 but is usually between 45 and 70 feet. Oscar E. Baynard, who has 

 climbed to between 250 and 300 nests, has found them as high as 140 

 feet. 



Walter J. Hoxie (1888) watched a pair of eagles building a new 

 nest, using some of the material from an old nest. The female did 

 most of the building, and the male helped by bringing material. He 

 says: 



Having at last a foundation of about a foot thicli, and four or five feet 

 wide, as near as I could estimate, tliey proceeded to remove tlie material from 

 the old partially repaired nest for the completion of the new one. The male 

 bird worked fairly well at this task, and during the last day made at least 

 three trips to one of the female. She apparently took great pains in the 

 interior arrangements of her new home, frequently pulling out a quantity of 

 trash upon the edge of the nest, and, after working around a while inside, 

 tumbling it back again, shaking it up with a great rustling of wings and 

 scratching of feet, which sent showers of little twigs and dirt upon the watcher 

 below. 



It is well known that, in Florida, great horned owls habitually use 

 unoccupied eagles' nests, but a record of both species using the same 

 nest simultaneously is unique, J. Warren Jacobs (1908) describes the 

 finding of a huge nest in Florida that measured 15 feet in height and 

 8 feet in thickness. An eagle was incubating a set of eggs on the top of 

 the great pile, and an owl flew "from a rude cavity in the side of the 

 eagle's nest, in which she had formed a nest and deposited two eggs" 

 4 feet from the bottom of the pile. Mr. Nicholson once found an 

 eagle incubating a great horned owl's egg. 



In other parts of its range the bald eagle has been known to choose 

 a variety of nesting sites. In the Middle Atlantic States nests have 

 been found in oaks, chestnuts, pines, gums, and other trees. Bendire 

 (1892) quotes Capt. B. F. Goss on two nests that he found on the 

 ground on islands in N8uces Bay, Texas. Of one he says: "It con- 

 sisted simply of a few sticks laid on the bare ground, not enough to 

 make a single tier even, and these were covered with bones, feathers. 



