The Bald Eagle 327 



Osprey in despair drops its fish. Instantly the eagle darts downward with 

 half-closed wings at an enormous speed, and catches the fish in mid-air 

 before the tree-tops are reached. 



In mountainous regions or along rocky sea-coasts Bald Eagles some- 

 times build their nests on cliffs, but their eyries are usually found in 

 tall trees. The first nest to which I ever climbed, 

 many years ago, was in a southern forest near a An Eagle s 

 lake-shore. The tree was a large one, and the only 

 possible way to make the ascent was by Bailing cleats of wood to the 

 tree as I progressed, keeping myself safe in the meantime by a rope 

 passing around the trees and over one shoulder and under the other 

 arm. The strips of wood were pulled up by a cord from the ground as 

 needed. By actual measurement, the first limb on this giant pine was 81 

 feet from the ground, and the edge of the nest was 131 feet in the air. 



It is one thing to climb to a Bald Eagle's nest, and quite another to 

 look into it when you get there. Above my head was a great accumula- 

 tion of fragments of limbs and twigs, which made a mass fully five feet 

 across and nearly as high. This great structure was supported by three 

 limbs which represented the main fork of the tree. It was only by tear- 

 ing away several arm f tils of this material, which, however, in no way 

 damaged the usefulness of the nest, that I was able to climb one of the 

 limbs to a position where I could see into the eyrie. This nest was almost 

 flat, with a shallow, basin-like depression in the center, where lay two 

 eaglets covered with a whitish down. They offered no resistance to my 

 handling, and the only complaint uttered was a low, whistling cry. 



The ascent of this tree was made on the twentieth of January, and, 

 as eagles sit on their eggs for about a month, the presence of the eaglets 

 showed that the eggs must have been laid some time in December. 



The next year I again climbed this huge forest-monarch, and, as be- 

 fore, the old eagles circled around at a sufficient distance to render them 

 safe from gun-fire had I entertained any designs on 

 their lives. This second visit was on January 14, The Eaglets 

 and this time I found the nest .contained young birds, 

 the expanse of whose wings measured three and a half feet from tip to 

 tip. The eggs from which they came must have been laid before Thanks- 

 giving Day. This was in Florida, in many parts of which Bald Eagles are 

 abundant. Farther north, the eggs are deposited later in the year, and in 

 Alaska they are not laid until April. 



Usually the nests are placed well back in swamps, or along unfre- 

 quented stretches of lake-shore or coast-line. They are ordinarily near 

 water ; in fact, all of the twenty or more nests that I have found were 

 so situated that, while brooding the eggs, the old eagles could look out 

 over some body of water. 



If the birds are not killed, the same eyrie is often occupied for a great 

 many years in succession, and is repaired each season by the addition of a 

 new layer of sticks, twigs, pine-needles, and sometimes of moss. This 

 additional material varies from two to four inches in thickness, and. as the 



