NORTHEKN BALD EAGLE 343 



In 1922 we said "good-bye" to the Eaglets more than once before knowing 

 tlie long practise they required to produce that perfect coordination of muscles 

 and nerves which was necessary for confidence in the air. During the last 

 week of regular eyrie life in that year they would sometimes rise to a height 

 of fifteen feet, and soar for a full minute, going even beyond the confines of 

 the nest and always with talons down to facilitate landing upon their return. 



At last the day comes for the eaglets to leave the nest. Sometimes 

 they do so voluntarily; but in some cases it seems necessary to use 

 persuasion. In Dr. Herrick's (1924c) "first season with the Eagles 

 the young seemed disinclined to leave their eyrie and were finally 

 starved out and lured away." After two daj^s of scanty feeding and 

 two days of fasting, "as the old Eagle with the fish was circling just 

 above the nest the Eaglet was jumping with legs rigid and flapping 

 frantically; suddenly it leaped into the air, and for a second seemed 

 to hang, as if poised over the eyrie; at that moment the circling 

 Eagle began to scream, and swooping down at the hovering and now 

 screaming youngster passed him within six feet; a minute later the 

 Eaglet, still holding to the air, drifted fifteen feet or more beyond the 

 margin of the nest; with vigorous wing-beats it began to move east- 

 ward, following the mother bird with the fish and made a full mile 

 in its first independent flight; it finally landed in the branches of 

 a tree on the edge of a strip of woods and doubtless was there 

 allowed to feed on the tantalizing fish." 



For some time after they leave the nest, probably all through their 

 first summer, the young eagles associate with their parents in the 

 home territory and frequently return to the nest or other favorite 

 perches. But the}^ are eventually driven out to earn their own liv- 

 ing and seek new territory. They are never allowed to establish a 

 breeding station near their parental home. 



Food. — Eagles feed their young on much the same food as they 

 eat themselves, with perhaps a somewhat larger proportion of 

 chickens, other birds, and small mammals. As the bulk of the food 

 of adults consists of fish, so it does of the young. Dr. Herrick 

 (1924c) says that in 1922 fish made up 70 percent of the food fed 

 to the young, and in 1923 fish constituted 96 percent of their food. 

 Among the fish fed to the young were carp, pike, catfish, and 

 sheepshead. Chickens, broiler size, were brought to the nest only 

 about 12 times during the two seasons, and once a bird that looked 

 like a killdeer. Crows, grebes, muskrats, rabbits, squirrels, and 

 rats have been found in the nests. In one nest, which was de- 

 stroyed, were 14 muskrat traps with the bones of the rats attached. 



Probably most of the fish taken are dead or dying fish, picked 

 up along the shores or floating on the surface of lakes, ponds, or 

 streams. But eagles are perfectly capable of catching live fish, as 

 referred to elsewhere. On Cape Cod, Mass., large numbers of her- 



