in unawed boldness. The aery of the Yosemite 

 eagle is the most sublimely defiant of things 

 built by bird, or beast, or man. 



A fish-hawk will make its nest upon the ground, 

 or a hummock, a stump, a buoy, a chimney— 

 upon anything near the water that offers an 

 adequate platform ; but its choice is the dead 

 top of some lofty tree where the pathway for its 

 wide wings is open and the vision range is free 

 for miles around. 



How dare the bird rear such a pile upon so 

 slight and towering a support ! How dare she 

 defy the winds, which, loosened far out on the 

 bay, come driving across the cowering, unresist- 

 ing marsh ! She is too bold sometimes. I have 

 known more than one nest to fall in a wild May 

 gale. Many a nest, built higher and wider year 

 after year, while all the time its dead support 

 has been rotting and weakening, gets heavy 

 with the wet of winter, and some night, under 

 the weight of an ice-storm, comes crashing to 

 the earth. 



Yet twelve years had gone since I scaled the 

 walls and stood within this nest ; and with pa- 

 tience and hardihood enough I could have done 

 [66] 



