SEA EAGLE. A471 
of a deviation from this striking habit. I cannot, therefore, avoid 
considering the opinion above alluded to, that “the male Osprey, by 
coupling with the female Sea Eagle, produces Sea Eagles; and that 
the female Osprey, by pairing with the male Sea Eagle, gives birth to 
Ospreys,” * or Fish Hawks, as altogether unsupported by facts, and 
contradicted by the constant and universal habits of the whole feathered 
race, in their state of nature. 
The Sea Eagle is said, by Salerne, to build on the loftiest oaks a 
very broad nest, into which it drops two large eggs, that are quite 
round, exceedingly heavy, and of a dirty white color. Of the precise 
time of building, we have no account ; but something may be deduced 
from the following circumstance :— In the month of May, while on a 
shooting excursion along the sea-coast, not far from Great Egg Harbor, 
accompanied by my friend Mr. Ord, we were conducted about a mile 
into, the woods to see an Eagle’s nest. On approaching within a short 
distance of the place, the bird was perceived slowly retreating from the 
nest, which, we found, occupied the centre of the top of a very large 
yellow pine. The woods were cut down, and cleared off, for several 
rods around the spot, which, from this circumstance, and the stately, 
erect trunk, and large, crooked, wriggling branches of the tree, sur- 
mounted by a black mass of sticks and brush, had a very singular and 
picturesque effect. Our conductor had brought an axe with him, to 
cut down the tree; but my companion, anxious to save the eggs, or 
young, insisted on ascending to the nest, which he fearlessly performed, 
while we stationed ourselves below, ready to defend him, in case of an 
attack from the old Eagles. No opposition, however, was offered ; and, 
on reaching the nest, it was found, to our disappointment, empty. It 
was built of large sticks, some of them several feet in length ; within 
which lay sods of earth, sedge, grass, dry reeds, &c., piled to the 
height of five or six feet, by more than four in breadth. It was well 
lined with fresh pine tops, and had. little or no concavity. Under this 
lining lay the recent exuvie of the young of the present year, such as 
scales of the quill-feathers, down, &c. Our guide had passed this 
place late in February, at which time both male and female were 
making a great noise about the nest; and, from what we afterwards 
learnt, itis highly probable it contained young, even at that early time 
of the season. + 
* Burron, vol. i. p. 80. Trans. 
t+ Mr. Ord adds the following :— “ The succeeding year, on the first day of March 
a friend of ours took from the same nest three eggs, the largest of which measure 
three inches and a quarter in length, two and a quarter in diameter, upwards of 
seven in circumference, and weighed four ounces five drams apothecaries weight ; 
the color, a dirty yellowish white ; one was of a very pale bluish white ; the young 
were perfectly formed. Such was the solicitude of the female to preserve her eggs, 
that die did not abandon the nest until several blows, with an axe, had been given 
the tree.” 
In the History of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition, we find the following account of 
an Eagle’s nest, which must have added not a little to the picturesque effect of the 
weecnied scenery at the Falls of the Missouri : — 
«Just below the upper pitch is a little island in the middle of the river, well cov- 
ered with timber. Here, on a cottonwood-tree, an Eagle had fixed its nest, and 
seemed the undisputed mistress of a spot, to contest whose dominion neither man nor 
beast would venture across the gulfs that surrounded it, and which is further secured 
by the mist rising from the falls.” — Hist. of the Exped, “ion, vol. i. p- 264. 
