134 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



January, another eagle passed through the same local- 

 ity, alighting in a field near some dead animal, but 

 tarried briefly. 



So much by way of identification. The bird is com- 

 mon to the northern parts of both hemispheres, and 

 places its eyrie on high precipitous rocks. A pair built 

 on an inaccessible shelf of rock along the Hudson for 

 eight successive years. A squad of Revolutionary sol- 

 diers, also, found a nest along this river, and had an 

 adventure with the bird that came near costing one of 

 their number his life. His comrades let him down bv 



J 



a rope to secure the eggs or young, when he was at- 

 tacked by the female eagle with such fury that he was 

 obliged to defend himself with his knife. In doing so, 

 by a misstroke, he nearly severed the rope that held 

 him, and was drawn up by a single strand from his 

 perilous position. Audubon, from whom this anecdote 

 is taken, figures and describes this bird as the golden 

 eagle, though I have little doubt that Wilson was right, 

 and that the golden eagle is a distinct species. 



The sea-eagle, also, builds on high rocks, according 

 to Audubon, though Wilson describes the nest of one 

 which he saw near Great Egg Harbor, in the top of a 

 large yellow pine. It was a vast pile of sticks, sods, 

 sedge, grass, reeds, etc., etc., five or six feet high by 

 four broad, and with little or no concavity. It had 

 been used for many years, and he was told that the 

 eagles made it a sort of home or lodging-place in all 

 seasons. This agrees with the description which Au- 



