112 



THE OOLOGIST 



"The Bald Eagle (Haliae-etus leucoce- 

 phalus) in Virginia." 



February and March are the Eagle 

 months in Virginia and possibly 

 Oologist readers may be interested in 

 three photographs, showing type lo- 

 cations of nests in this state. Figure 

 one shows a two year old nest in a 

 dead chestnut tree. Most of the 

 chestnut trees in Tidewater, Virginia, 

 have been killed by the dreaded chest- 

 nut blight, and nests located thus are 

 an exception. Figure two shows a 

 four year old nest in a live pine tree. 

 To reach it and nest number three, 

 the writer had to wade in water al- 

 most over his hip boots, besides 

 marsh grass waist high. Nest number 

 three is the prize, its age unknown 

 though old enough to have killed the 

 pine in which it was located. Years 

 ago such a dead tree had no terrors 

 for me, but I find that with passing 

 years and a growing family of kids 

 to support, that I don't take the 

 chances I used to. The tree trunk will 

 not support the climbing irons when 

 stuck into it, though the heart is 

 solid light wood and the severe 

 storms each year fail to blow it down, 

 although it is top-heavy. 



The nest is over seven foot tall, and 

 four and a half feet broad, and will, I 

 judge, weigh three quarters of a ton. 

 I now pass this tree by, but still ad- 

 mire its beauty and the owners of the 

 nest. 



Eagles' nests are located far apart, 

 and if one gets to three or four in a 

 day's time, it is doing well. 



Sometimes, after being robbed, the 

 eagles will lay in the same nest with- 

 in three weeks, but generally they 

 build a new one, if no other old nest 

 is available, in which case it takes 

 about four weeks to build and lay. I 

 have found it a rule, that they will 

 invariably lay a second time after be- 

 ing robbed, unless the young of ten 



days or two weeks of age, or over, are 

 taken, in which case, they do not lay 

 again until the following year. 



It is useless to climb to a nest, un- 

 less the bird is seen to come off and 

 one soon learns to judge by her actions 

 whether the nest is empty or contains 

 only one egg or a full set. 



The largest and tallest trees are 

 selected and after seeing the lo- 

 cations of Golden Eagle nests on the 

 west coast, I am of the opinion that 

 Golden Eagles' eggs are easier to se- 

 cure than those of the Bald Eagle. 



Old birds lay as much as a month 

 earlier than young birds, for I have 

 taken fresh eggs from an old nest of 

 young birds and young from the nest 

 of old birds on the same day and' in 

 the same territory. 



A few more years and I will have 

 to pass up these big trees and stop 

 exchanging Bald Eagle eggs, unless 

 one of my boys should care to follow 

 in his father's foot steps. 



Harold H. Bailey, 

 Newport News, Va. 



Feb. 10, 1918. 



BACHELOR BIRDS 



During the last half of May and all 

 of June 1915, there was a bird that 

 flew from one part of the village to 

 another all the time uttering a loud 

 cry of "Here, Hree;" until even those 

 who do not ordinarily noice the birds 

 had to take notice, and began to make 

 inquiries as to what the bird was. It 

 was so shy that it was difficult to get 

 a good view of it as it would give its 

 call of "Here, Here" and go to another 

 tree. I finally made out that it was 

 a male Baltimore Oriole, Icterus Gal- 

 bula, and without a mate. During 

 July he began to acquire the plumage 

 of the adult male and either became 

 silent or more probably learned the 

 usual oriole song. This was in North 

 Loop, Nebraska. This year during the 



