196 NOTES ON THE 



rarity, by the dark band on his white tail. But generally if 

 one would study him, he must go to the uninhabited and almost 

 uninhabitable parts of the earth, far above the ordinary planes 

 of animated nature, and there contemplate him in the sublimest 

 solitude. As he climbs to the very clouds, and penetrates be- 

 hind the veil of the storm, even the mountains are low down 

 in respect to him, and he seems to know and care but little 

 about the world." 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Large; tarsi densely feathered to toes; head and neck be- 

 hind, light brownish- fulvous, varying in shade in different spec- 

 imens, frequently light orange- fulvous, generally darker; tail at 

 base white, which color frequently occupies the greater part of 

 the tail; other tefrminal portion glossy black; all other parts rich 

 purplish-brown, frequently v^ery dark, and nearly clear blade 

 on the under parts of the body; primaries shining black; 

 secondaries purplish- brown; tibiae and tarsi brownish-fulvous, 

 generally mixed with dark-ashy; cere and toes yellow. 



Length (female), 33 to 40; wing, 25; tail, 15. 



Habitat, North America. 



hilij:etus leucocephalus (l.). (352.) 



bald eagle. 



This least understood, most honored, and most abused of 

 the entire class to which it belongs, has honored or dishonored 

 the North Star State, by making it emphatically the place of 

 his abode. No forest with a right to the name, but claims the 

 enviable or unenviable distinction of harboring the whole 

 family of this species. Its harsh screams are familiar to the 

 woodman during the nidifying season, and 'Inany a cabin in the 

 solitudes of the deep, dark forests, has its young eagle chained 

 to its gable, or the convenient out-house. Its habit of breed- 

 ing year after year on the same filthy old nest, even after 

 having been repeatedly robbed of its eggs or young, gives 

 unusual opportunities for noting its habits. 



Some of these birds seem to go a little further south, as is 

 indicated by their return in spring, but not all for they are 

 often observed through the entire winter. About the last 

 week in Feb. some of them commence preparations for nest- 

 ing by repairing the old structure, or building another en- 

 tirely new. Fragments of dry limbs a yard in length, and 

 from one to two inches in thickness are laid into the forks of a 

 large tree, at least forty feet from the ground, and more fre- 

 quently sixty feet. These are criss-crossed in a rude, but 

 really very ingenious manner, and secured in their position by 



