52 WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 



of which appeared nearly three times as large as the other. As 

 a proof of their attachment to their young, a person near Nor- 

 folk informed me, that, in clearing a piece of woods on his 

 place, they met with a large dead pine tree, on which was a 

 Bald Eagle's nest and young. The tree being on fire more than 

 half way up, and the flames rapidly ascending, the parent Ea- 

 gle darted around and among the flames, until her plumage was 

 so much injured that it was with difficulty she could make her 

 escape, and even then, she several times attempted to return to 

 relieve her offspring. 



No bird provides more abundantly for its young than the 

 Bald Eagle. Fish are daily carried thither in numbers, so that 

 they sometimes lie scattered round the tree, and the putrid 

 smell of the nest may be distinguished at the distance of seve- 

 ral hundred yards. The young are at first covered with a thick, 

 whitish, or cream-coloured cottony down; they gradually be- 

 come of a gray colour, as their plumage develops itself, con- 

 tinue of the brown gray until the third year, when the white 

 begins to make its appearance on the head, neck, tail-coverts 

 and tail; these, by the end of the fourth year, are completely 

 white, or very slightly tinged with cream; the eye also is at 

 first hazel, but gradually brightens into a brilliant straw colour, 

 with the white plumage of the head. Such at least was the 

 gradual progress of this change, witnessed by myself, on a very 

 fine specimen, brought up by a gentleman, a friend of mine, 

 who for a considerable time believed it to be what is usually 

 called the Gray Eagle, and was much surprised at the gradual 

 metamorphosis. This will account for the circumstance, so fre- 

 quently observed, of the Gray and White-headed Eagle being 

 seen together, both being in fact the same species, in different 

 stages of colour, according to their difference of age. 



The flight of the Bald Eagle, when taken into consideration 

 with the ardour and energy of his character, is noble and in- 

 teresting. Sometimes the human eye can just discern him, like 

 a minute speck, moving in slow curvatures along the face of the 

 heavens, as if reconnoitring the earth at that immense distance. 



