where he banded more than 800 

 young- during the period, 1939-46. 

 Since that time he has encountered 

 a steady reduction in their numbers. 

 Whereas, formerly he banded 100 or 

 more young birds in a season, in 

 1950 he was able to band only 25 

 young; in 1951, 24; in 1952, but 15; 

 and in 1953, 18. Not all of this de- 

 crease can be charged against kill- 

 ing of the birds since, in many in- 

 stances, there has been a marked 

 change in the environment through 

 cutting of timber and exposure of 

 nesting sites to the elements. Bro- 

 ley (1951) is inclined to believe that 

 the severe storm that swept the 

 Atlantic coast in 1950 played an im- 

 portant part in the destruction of 

 nests and the abandonment of 

 others. 



An idea of the density of nesting 

 bald eagles in an optimum nesting 

 area may be gained from Howell's 

 reference to nests found in Volusia 

 County, Fla., in 1935. In the 18 

 miles between the towns of Shiloh 

 and New Smyrna there was an eagle 

 nest to each 2 square miles and one 

 nest in use to each 3 square miles. 

 In 1940, the manager of the St. 

 Marks National Wildlife Eefuge 

 reported nine known nests and pos- 

 sibly three to five others on that 

 65,000-acre area along the gulf 

 coast in northwestern Florida. 



In contrast with its abundance as 

 a breeder in some of our coastal 

 areas, the bald eagle is relatively 

 scarce in the interior. If the birds 

 encountered during migration were 

 excluded and only resident birds 

 considered, the bald eagle certainly 

 would be termed an uncommon bird 

 throughout most of our eastern 



mountains, the central valleys (ex- 

 clusive of the Great Lakes area), 

 the plains, and the western moun- 

 tains. This appraisal has been sub- 

 Ktantiated by the testimony of 

 informed individuals in numerous 

 States. Speaking with respect to 

 the whole of Canada, Taverner 

 (1934, p. 137) stated that "except 

 on the seacoasts the Bald Eagle is 

 nothing more than a rare, interest- 

 ing, and picturesque feature of the 

 landscape." Even in Michigan witli 

 its abundance of suitable habitat 

 for bald eagles, the Department of 

 Conservation reported in 1940 and 

 1941 that, conservatively estimated, 

 there were 50 breeding pairs of 

 these birds in the State (Wood 

 1951). In other widely separated 

 States including New Jersey, Mas- 

 sachusetts, Minnesota, Louisiana, 

 and California, reliable published 

 information indicates that the bald 

 eagle is much reduced in numbers 

 or absent as a breeding bird from 

 areas where it once nested regularly. 

 That food supply affects eagle 

 movement and local abundance 

 during winter is evident in the Mid- 

 west where these birds congi^egate 

 in open-water areas of the large 

 rivers. Musselman (1949) has re- 

 corded fluctuations in their num- 

 bers along the Mississippi River in 

 western Illinois. He states: 



Bald eagles (Haliaeettis leucocephaJus) 

 have been seen at Keokuk [Iowa] in 

 small numbers for more than half a 

 century. Originally they were attracted 

 by ofifal thrown into the river from the 

 pork packing houses to the south. The 

 water of the river was almost always 

 open during the winter due to the Des 

 Moines rapids ; an occasional dead fish 

 along with the offal supplied an abun- 

 dance of food. 



4 



