416 



THE BALD EAGLE. 



Sandusky. 

 \ CHERISH 



eggs in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, on Feb- 

 ruary i tth. Usually they do not commence to lay 

 until March, and correspondingly later as they 

 advance northward" (Bendire). 



The nests, which in this section are always 

 placed well up in good-sized trees, are repaired 

 and added to year by year until they come to be 

 immense and historic structures. Not only are 

 the trees in which they are built usually hard to 

 climb, but it is often difficult, or well nigh im- 

 possible, to pass the bulging sides of the nest so as to ob- 

 tain access to the eggs themselves. 



Both sexes share the duty of incubation, which lasts 

 about a month, and the two birds are sometimes to be seen 

 together at the nest, the one standing and the other squat- 

 ting upon the eggs. The eggs are two, rarely three, pure 

 white or bluish white, and are laid at intervals of two or 

 three days. There is often quite a discrepancy in the size 

 of the eggs, the larger being presumably laid first. If the 

 eggs are destroyed the birds will not nest again until the 

 following year. The young, when hatched, remain in the 

 nest three or four months before they are able to fly, and 

 even then sometimes require considerable urging on the 

 part of their ambitious parents. 



It must he evident that those who live in the vicinity. 

 of an Eagle's nest become very much attached to these 

 stately birds, and view their comings and goings with 

 unfailing interest. In some parts of Erie and Ottawa 

 counties the Eagles are regarded very highly, and any 

 one who- attempted to' molest one of them would get into 

 serious trouble with its human neighbors. This i-. quite 

 as it should lie. The people of this state could 

 far better afford to reimburse the owners of 

 poultry and sheep tor some trifling losses in- 

 flicted upon them, than they could to be de- 

 prived of the majestic presence of these sym- 

 bolic birds. The killing of a Bald Eagle ought 

 i- be a penitentiary offense, and the man who 

 .-> would wantonl) destroy one of their monu- 

 mental landmarks is beneath contempt. 



