•40 



THE OOLOGIST. 



should prouounce them "a great freak 

 of nature" is a surprise to me. I must 

 have taken at least seven sets of this 

 species last June wliich contained white 

 eggs. The average number in these 

 sets were live and six and ranged in 

 color about as follows: two natural, 

 three white or light dirty yellow, spot- 

 ted or blotched at the larger end, and 

 the remainder pure white. I succeeded 

 in washing the spots off mauy of the 

 lightly marked eggs. My brother and 

 Mr. Bradshaw Swales of this city have 

 l)0th taken a few pure white eggs of 

 this species. I recollect Mr. Swales 

 finding a set of six, all of which were 

 white and another containing five white 

 and one of the typical color and mark- 

 ings. Would be pleased to hear from 

 him on the subject through your paper 

 All the white eggs are very rough and 

 rather thick shelled. 



J. Claire Wood. 



A Day's Trip for Bald Eagle Nests in Florida- 



What oologist has not wished to find 

 an eagle's nest, and dreamed of climb- 

 ing some huge tree or scaling a steep 

 cliff iu (juest of one. As I am no, ex- 

 ception to the rule and thinking my 

 brother collectoi's would be interested, 

 I will relate how my wildest dreams 

 were more than realized by finding three 

 nests in one day. 



On Dec. 14, 't)l Mr. R. C. Stuart aud 

 myself started Avith hoi-se and buggy at 

 8:30 a. m. for Gadsen Point on Tampa 

 Bay, eleven miles from home, in quest 

 of Bald Eagle's nests. After a pleasant 

 ride of two hours and a half we came 

 out on the Point and began to search 

 the tree tops for nests aud in ' a fcAv 

 minutes had sjjied a huge nest in a large 

 pine about seventy feet from the ground; 

 as it was the first nest that I had ever 

 seen you can imagine mj' feelings. 



As we approached tlie nest one of the 

 birds fiew off and ))egan circling around 



the tree screaming with alarm Avhich 

 soon brought its mate, and the two sail- 

 ing around in their graceful flight made 

 a beautiful picture. 



Losing no time I stiapped on my 

 climbers and started up. but finding the 

 tree to large to reach around I had to 

 use a strap until the first limb was 

 reached, and leaving it there soon 

 reached the bottom of the nest, but here 

 came the diflicult part for the nest was 

 so flaring that it was hard to gain ac- 

 cess to the top, but after a little plan- 

 ning soon swung OAcr into the nest, but 

 the sight that met my gaze sent a shade 

 of disappointment over mj-- face for 

 there sat two young eagles, scattered 

 all around the nest were parts of ducks 

 and fish some nearly fresh. 



The nest was about six feet in depth 

 and eight feet across the top. perfectly 

 flat on top except a small holloAV in the 

 center al)out a foot in diameter and six 

 inches deep lined with fine grass and 

 weeds.. The bulk of the nest was com- 

 posed of pine branches about an inch in 

 diameter but some were much larger, 

 three feet long aud two inches thick. 



The nest was placed in the fork of 

 the large main limbs and was so solid 

 that 1 stood up and walked around on 

 the nest. 



Tliis nest is typical of about a dozen 

 nests which I have examined in the past 

 three weeks. Taking the young eagles 

 for mounting I soon desended and we 

 started on. In about two hours Ave had 

 found tAvo more nests, and obtained tAvo 

 fine sets of eggs. As it Avas noAV get- 

 ting late Ave packed the eggs safely in 

 our dinner basket (an indes])ensible art- 

 icle on eggin' trips) and started home- 

 Avai'd. To say that Ave were happy 

 Avould not express it, I had found What 

 I had been looking for for several years 

 and my joy kept bubbling oA-er at times. 

 Well Ave reached home about dark and 

 so ended a trip long to be remembered. 

 WiLLAKD Eliot, 

 Tampa, Florida 



