BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



93 



clear cac-cac-cac, and the female's more harsh and broken, a note which, 

 when heard nearby, Doctor Fisher compares to a loud maniacal laugh. 



The Bald eagle lays her eggs very early in the season, in February 

 or early March, being the largest resident and earliest breeder of our diurnal 

 birds of prey, as the Great horned owl is of our nocturnal Raptores. The 

 eagle's nest is usually built in a lofty tree, near the top, and the tree dies 

 after a few years leaving the huge nest of sticks a conspicious object easily 

 seen for a long distance by all who pass by. If undisturbed a pair will 

 occupy the same nest for many years but, although the eagles are quite 



Bald eagle's nest with young 



Photo by Guy A. Bailey 



harmless neighbors and a distinct addition to the picturesqueness of the 

 landscape, and legally protected by the statutes of our State, few eagle 

 eyries have survived the vandalism of thoughtless tourists and fishermen, 

 or of countrymen who shoot the birds for the local taxidermist or trap 

 them for the nearest zoo, or of summer visitors from the city who conceive 

 it a great achievement to lie in wait with a rifle and slaughter the parents 

 ■or climb to the nest and carry off the young, or of oologists who take 

 the eggs repeatedly. The eggs are 2 or 3 in number, dull white in color, 



