552 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



approach the mighty birds quite boldly and confidently, find among 

 these twigs cavities suitable for nesting or hiding. 



Towards the end of February, or in the beginning of March, the 

 female lays two, or at most three eggs in the shallow nest-cavity, and 

 begins brooding assiduously. The male meantime supplies her with 

 food, not, however, making longer expeditions in search of it than 

 are absolutely necessary, but spending whatever time he can spare 

 from the work of providing for her and himself, sitting, a faithful and 

 attentive guardian, on a tree in the neighbourhood, which serves him 

 at once as perch and sleeping-place. After about four weeks of 

 brooding, the young emerge from the eggs, looking at first like soft 

 balls of wool, from which dark eyes peer forth, and a dark bill and 

 very sharp claws protrude. Even in their earliest youth the little 

 creatures are as pretty as they are self-possessed. Now there is work 

 enough for both father and mother. The two take turns in going 

 forth to seek for prey, and in mounting guard over the little ones; 

 but it is the mother who tends them. The father honestly performs 

 his part in the rearing of the brood; but the mother alone is capable 

 of giving them that care and attention which may be described as 

 nursing. If she were torn from them in the first days of their life, 

 they would perish as surely as young mammals robbed of their suck- 

 ling mother. With her own breast the eagle-mother protects them 

 from frost and snow; from her own crop she supplies them with 

 warmed, softened, and partly-digested food. The eagle-father does 

 not render such nursing services as these, but if the mother perish 

 when the young are half -grown, he unhesitatingly takes upon him- 

 self the task of rearing and feeding them, and often performs it with 

 the most self-sacrificing toil. The young eagles grow rapidly. In 

 the third week of their existence the upper surface of the body is 

 covered with feathers; towards the end of May they are full-grown 

 and fully fledged. Then they leave the nest, to prepare, under the 

 guidance of their parents, for the business of life. 



This is a picture, drawn with hasty strokes, of the life of the 

 eagle, which, for the next few days, was the object of our expeditions. 

 No fewer than nineteen inhabited eyries were visited by us with 

 varying success. Now on foot, now in little boats, now jumping and 



