“THE BALD EAGLE. 521 
child was more scared than hurt, since the Eagle’s claws had caught only in 
the folds of its dress. 
The Bald Eagle is here eminently aquatic in its habits, and might, con- 
ceivably, if left alone, have developed all the seamanship of the Osprey. 
Dr. Cooper says:  Lnever saw it dive forafish *~ * * but have seen it 
settle for a moment on the water to secure a dead fish, closing its wings” ; 
while Suckley quotes Mr. Geo. Gibbs as affirming that he has seen the Bald 
Eagle alight in deep water and rest upon it “‘like a gull.” Much time was 
spent by the bird in an earlier day upon the beach where it moved about freely 
in company with gulls, ravens, and crows, which were quite unconcerned at 
its presence. The Eagle occasionally does patrol duty ashore, after the 
fashion of hawk or vulture, but spends more time as a sentinel, in some com- 
manding position on cliff or tree. The eagle eye is proverbial, little happening 
along the beach for a mile either way of which the bird does not take account. 
“Nidification begins early. In Florida and other parts of the Gulf coast 
eggs are sometimes deposited in the early part of November, but generally 
from the 1st to the 15th of December. In the Middle States they nest occa- 
sionally in the beginning of February. * * * Usually they do not com- 
mence to lay until March, and correspondingly later as they advance north- 
ward” ( Bendire ). 
The nests, which in this section are always placed well up in good-sized 
trees, are repaired and added to year by year until they come to be immense 
and historic structures. Not only are the trees in which they are built usually 
hard to climb, but it 1s often difficult, or well nigh impossible, to pass the 
bulging sides of the nest so as to obtain access to the eggs themselves. 
Both sexes share the duty of incubation, which lasts about a month, and 
the two birds are sometimes to be seen together at the nest, the one standing, 
and the other squatting upon the eggs. The eggs are two, rarely three, pure 
white or bluish white, and are laid at intervals of two or three days. There 
is often quite a discrepancy in the size of the eggs, the larger presumably 
being laid first. If the eggs are destroyed the birds will not nest again until 
the following year. The young, when hatched, remain in the nest three or 
four months before they are able to fly, and even then sometimes require 
considerable urging on the part of their ambitious parents 
It is evident that those who live in the vicinity of an Eagle’s nest must 
become very much attached to these stately birds, and view their comings and 
goings with unfailing interest. In some sections the protection of the local 
eagles is a matter of pride, and any one who attempted to molest one of them 
would get into serious trouble with its human neighbors. This is quite as it 
should be. The people of this State could far better afford to reimburse the 
owners of poultry and sheep for some trifling losses inflicted upon them, than 
they could to be deprived of the majestic presence of these symbolic birds. 
