EAGLES 237 



In Penobscot County the five to six pair of birds are scat- 

 tered, each pair controlling a very great area. The well known 

 "Pushaw Eagles" have been reported as ranging some twenty 

 miles away from their nesting grounds, or in other words occupy 

 a territory of over four hundred square miles, in fact much 

 more territory belongs to their district, even if not used by 

 them, for their nearest neighbors to the eastward are the Flood's 

 Pond, Green Lake, Union River pair of birds which range 

 more or less about the territory named and are reported as 

 nesting on Union River waters. To the westward their near- 

 est neighbors are the Harmony-Pittsfield-Newport pair which 

 are said to nest in the Harmony region. To the northward 

 their neighbors are the Ebeeme-Schoodic-Sebois pair whose 

 headquarters are reported to be in Ebeeme waters. 



The Pushaw Eagles have been known for years, some of the 

 older inhabitants solemnly averring that their fathers spoke 

 of seeing this same pair of birds in childhood days. It is 

 undoubted that the natives can recognize this pair of birds, 

 and it seems quite likely that their age is traceable back so as 

 to indicate that a pair, only one pair, and undoubtedly the 

 same pair of birds have been in that region nearly if not over 

 one hundred years. That region was first settled in the vicinity 

 of 1800 and as nearly as can be determined by conversation 

 with various people at dijfferent times the birds were known in 

 that region by the earliest settlers. 



They nest and rear their young every year undisturbed, 

 indeed I would give a good fair premium to the person able 

 to reach their nest in any other way than by balloon or air- 

 ship. Situated in the dead top of a lofty, nearly limbless pine 

 that has stood the blasts of years, this nest when seen by me 

 some fifteen years ago was well able to stand as a challenge to 

 the ambitious oologist for a long time to come. Viewed from 

 the ground the nest appeared, as calculated from careful meas- 

 urements of the shadow of the tree, shadow of the nest and 

 shadow of a known length of stick, to be fully ten feet in 



