128 THE BIRDS 
sometimes they are lost to view in the clouds. At other 
times I have seen the eagle get the advantage by being 
above the Osprey; in such cases the Osprey makes for his 
chosen dead trees, where he usually perches when devour- 
ing his catch, or for the nest. In these cases, however, 
the Osprey generally loses, for the eagle, with his slow 
but powerful wing beats, soon overtakes the smaller bird, 
whom it swoops down to strike, and the Osprey loosens 
its prey, generally to be caught by the eagle before it 
reaches the ground. I watched a flight like this last 
summer, only the eagle missed the fish when dropped, 
and descended and lit in my orchard, where it devoured the 
fish before rising. As practically all the fish they catch 
are worthless for food, bunkers and other school fish, the 
fishermen do not molest them, and they seem to be on the 
steady increase. Practically all their food is live fish; 
their arrival, about March 7th, denoting also the arrival 
of large schools of fish in the river. The old birds return 
to the old nest year after year, driving off the young the 
next spring to seek a situation and build a home of their 
own. Very often these young birds are wanting in house- 
hold building, and twice lately have they secured deserted 
Bald Eagle nests, not far distant from my home. The 
nest is a huge affair of sticks, corn stalks and rubbish of 
all sorts, with seaweed on the inner surface of the 
depression. The eggs number two to three, rarely four, 
and have a dark cream ground color, generally highly 
colored by blotches and spots of reddish-brown or chest- 
nut. Size, 2.40x1.80. Fresh eggs May 1st to 10th. The 
nest is usually placed in the top of a very large and tall 
dead pine; often a large live one is selected if dead ones 
be scarce. In years gone by they have been known to make 
nests on the high sand dunes on some of the islands off 
