THE BALD EAGLE. 275 



condescend to eat fish, like their more northern brothers and sisters. I have 

 often seen them catch wounded birds, and I visited one nest that contained in 

 addition to two well grown young birds the remains of thirteen Coots and 

 one catfish. Most of their eggs are hatched by the middle of December, 

 and some must be laid as early as the 1st of November, as my assistant 

 found a nest containing two eggs on the point of hatching on December 5, 

 and I found young birds two or three weeks old on December 15. The 

 latest sets I collected were one of two fresh eggs, taken January 26, and 

 another of two, one egg of which was nearly hatched and the other addled, 

 taken February 3. The eggs of this species from this vicinity are more 

 elongated and on the average smaller than the descriptions and measure- 

 ments usually given of the eggs taken farther north. 



"From what I could learn these birds invariably lay two eggs, as I 

 never found a larger set, and where I found but a single egg, it was always 

 fresh. On several occasions I found but one young bird in a nest, and 

 as I took quite often a set of two eggs, of which one was addled, I con- 

 cluded that this was the reason. One peculiarity of the Bald Eagle that 

 I have never noticed in other birds of prey is, that when a pair are 

 robbed of their eggs or young, they will not lay again until the next season. 

 I watched a great many nests after they were robbed, visiting some close 

 by where I lived every few days for a period of two months or more, yet, 

 notwithstanding I almost always found one or both birds at home, I never 

 succeeded in getting two sets of eggs from the same nest during the same 

 season, though the next year these nests were again occupied. 



"The nests are immense structures, from 5 to 6 feet in diameter and 

 about the same in depth, and so strong that a man can walk around in one 

 without danger of breaking through; in fact my assistant would always get 

 in the nest before letting the eggs down to me. They are composed of 

 sticks, some of which are 2 or 3 inches thick, and are liued with marsh 

 grass or some similar material. There is usually a slight depression in the 

 center, where the eggs are placed, but the edge of the nest extends so far 

 beyond this that it is almost impossible to see the bird from below, unless 

 it has its head well up. I have frequently found foreign substances in their 

 nests, usually placed on the edges of it, the object of which I cannot 

 account for. Often it would be a ball of grass, wet or dry, sometimes a 

 green branch from a pine tree, and again a piece of wood, bark, or other 

 material. It seemed as if they were placed in the nests to mark them. 

 From its frequent occurrence, at least, it appeared to me as if designedly 

 done. 



"I believe these birds have a certain time for laying, and that their 

 eggs are deposited within a few days of that time every year. In the vicin- 

 ity of San Mateo, Florida, the Bald Eagle is now quite rare, and I know 

 of but one nest that is occupied by these birds. This season they began 

 sitting on January 31, the earliest date on which I have ever known them 



