THE OSPREY. 



83 



IN THE TREE WITH THE EAGLE S NEST. 



live oak. It was composed of oak sticks, lined with progress slow and none of the nests were in use. 

 dried grass, green 'soap-root' and a few green oak One, a flimsy affair in a small oak, had blown down 

 leaves, and measured 3x3^ feet, the nest cavity being during the winter and the others were flat and de- 

 15 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. Incubation serted. A pair of Eagles flew from some trees on a 

 was begun in one egg, while the other was fresh. In hillside but gave no evidence of a nest and none could 

 i8g6 I visited this nest early in the season and found be found. The nest which had been blown down 

 one egg, quite similar in shape to the eggs laid this was one I had found on April 19, 1896, at which 



date it contained 

 two light -col or ed 

 eggs about one-half 

 incubated. I was 

 perhaps a quarter of 

 a mile from the lo- 

 cality when I heard 

 an Eagle call from 

 the trees, and upon 

 reaching the place 

 flushed the bird 

 from her nest which 

 was a large, loose 

 structure, placed 20 

 feet up in a small 

 oak. The birds were 

 an old pair and had 

 probably built the 

 nest that year and 

 it was too frail to 

 stand the storms. 

 The ' call ' I have 

 year, and left it. Several days later I found the egg referred to is a sharp, penetrating cry, somewhat re- 

 broken and the nest deserted. sembling a Turkey's note, and it is usually uttered 



The next morning, March 7, I was up long before from the nest and can be heard a long way. 

 day-light, intent on visiting another nest. The air When I reached the top of a ridge an icy sleet was 

 was chilly and the grass and trees saturated from blowing and I was glad to work my way back. Later 

 the night's rain, and the innumerable gullies were in the day I started to visit a nest for Mr. Taylor, this 

 running full of water, making progress slow and dis- time being favored with sunshine. While galloping 

 agreeable, but I reached the nest soon after sunrise over the rolling hills I came upon a Turkey Vulture 

 and could see the Eagle on, but she would not leave feeding upon a small dead calf. It was tearing lazily 

 until I pounded on the tree. Then with a spread of at the hide and soon observed my approach and 

 her great wings she sailed away and was not seen ceased feeding. I drew near and it walked off a few 

 again during my stay. The tree was quite large, paces as though loath to leave its disgusting repast, 

 straight and limbless for some distance, and at this I approached within 50 feet and passed on. It re- 

 time was moss-grown and wet. Suffice to say the mained motionless for some time, finally, as I drew 

 nest was reached and a set of two eggs secured, in off, taking a few deliberate waddling steps back 

 both of which incubation was commenced. The toward the carcass where I left it. 

 nest was quite round and three feet in diameter and The nest I had gone in search of proved unused 

 had been "built up" with green oak leaves and and I turned homeward once more, little thinking of 

 limbs. The depression was shallow and lined with the surprise in store. I was riding hurriedly along 

 moss and green oak leaves. The nest was placed on when an Eagle sailed majestically over a hill and 

 a horizontal fork of a live-oak 42 feet from the into a low, dwarfed oak on the edge of a 'wash-out.' 

 ground. The eggs are unusually large, measuring It lit in a low fork and hopped up out of sight. I 

 3.10x2.46 and 3.06x2.38 inches. One was pure white turned toward the tree and upon near approach it 

 in color with a rough shell and a faint wreath of small flew out, followed by its mate. The tree was very 

 brown dots near the large end, much resembling a small and I could see the nest on the farther side on 

 Petrel's egg. The other was boldly marked with a horizontal limb overhanging the 'wash-out.' The 

 reddish-brown and lilac all over, and principally nest was 26 feet from the bottom of the bank, but 

 about the large end. scarcely ten feet up in the tree, — an odd nesting site 



After a late breakfast I started on horseback to for such great birds. The nest was large, measuring 

 inspect some old nests. The hills were slippery and 3x5 feet and loosely built of oak sticks and lined en- 



