264 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



on at once a new and livelier interest; for then the birds can shift 

 readily from nest to perch, or back again to the nest, and to have the 

 whole family at dinner may be a daily experience. It is possible that a 

 sound tree, when long occupied, might suffer and finally languish 

 under the ever growing mass of vegetable decay which it is usually 

 called upon to sustain. This was apparently the case with the nest 

 tree at Vermilion, Ohio, about which our interest will be mainly 

 centered in subsequent articles; though somewhat broken at the top, 

 there was enough foliage about this great nest in 1922 to seriously 

 hamper observations; in the folloAving spring, to our great surprise, 

 the flow of sap suddenly failed and, except upon a single branch at a 

 height of barely 20 feet, the life of this tree went out. Other hickory 

 trees in the same grove, though unencumbered, have also died, and 

 during the spring gales of the present year many were broken or 

 overthrown, so we can record only the fact, while the relation of 

 cause and effect remains in doubt. 



So far as I have observed, the nest tree is seldom at first completely 

 isolated, but commonly stands on the border of woods or in an open 

 grove, a mile or more from the lake, and it often lises to such a 

 height as to command the entire neighborhood. I have known one 

 instance where the surrounding timber was cut away, but a kindly 

 farmer spared the eagles' tree, and its great aerie, borne aloft and 

 visible for miles in certain directions, stood out like a castle on a hill. 



What has just been said would not apply to island nests, and in 

 our studies of the eagle experience is ever warning us against in- 

 dulgence in the easy path of generalization ; not only must we expecf 

 to find much variation in habit among different individuals, but also 

 in the same individuals at different times, for habit in this sense is 

 the result of experience. Most eagles are great place holders, and we 

 have recorded the instance at Vermilion in which the same aerie has 

 been occupied for upward of 34 years without a break, and the im- 

 mediate region for nearly a century; while other individuals, bent 

 possibly upon improving their condition with respect to the food 

 supply, their safety or that of their aerie, seem to be constantly on 

 the move. Thus, a pair at Danbury, Ohio, have moved three times 

 in five years, and I have known a deserted aerie to be reclaimed after 

 an interval of one or more years, presumably by the original owners. 

 At Kelley's Island a number of nests are in open pastures, and in at 

 least one instance the site is so poorly chosen as to suggest the work 

 of inexperienced builders. On an island in the Pacific, 50 miles 

 south of San Pedro, Imown as San Clemente, Breninger" found 

 two ground nests of this eagle in February, 1903 ; they were placed 



sBrenlnger, George F. San Clemente Island and Its Birds. The Auk, Vol. XXI, p. 

 219. Cambridge, 1904. 



