276 LIFE tilSTOEIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



to begin here, and, during the several years I have known this nest to be 

 occupied, I do not remember them ever commencing to lay later than Feb- 

 ruary 6 or 7. I also think if one of a pair be killed after they have eggs or 

 young, if nothing further happens, that the remaining bird will perform all 

 the duty of incubation and care for the young. 



"Two of my assistants watched the nest previously referred to during 

 the present season, 1891, and on the day the birds were first found sitting 

 both my men had visited the place, and on their return I saw them sepa- 

 rately when they both told the following story. They said 'that they found 

 one of the Eagles on the nest and that on pounding on the tree it flew to 

 another near by and gathered a bunch of Spanish moss in its claws. It then 

 flew slowly back over the nest, and, when just above it, poised for a moment 

 on its wings, and dropped the moss, which nearly fell into the nest.' I believe 

 this to be true, for I questioned both of the men very closely and they told 

 exactly the same story, and they know nothing about the habit these birds 

 have of marking their nests. 



"Nearly all the nests I found were in pine trees, and generally the 

 highest and thickest the birds could find, but as pines in this locality are 

 not very tall, the majority of the nests were only 50 or 60 feet above the 

 ground. The highest and lowest locations of nests were 75 and 30 feet, but 

 these were extremes, at least so far as occupied nests were concerned. The 

 places the Bald Eagle likes to frequent are forests of tall heavy timber in the 

 immediate vicinity of some good-sized body of water, and they almost always 

 build their nests in such situations. Both sexes assist in incubation, and are 

 equally solicitous in the care of their eggs and young. They show great 

 distress when their nests are disturbed, but are very careful to keep just out 

 of gunshot, and I can recall but one instance of the Bald Eagle's attacking 

 anyone, and that was a pair which had a nest in a large pine tree near 

 the south shore of Crescent Lake, Florida. These birds would swoop down 

 and almost strike the head of my climber, and were so very savage that one 

 of my party became frightened, and thinking they might injure him, shot the 

 male, which was the fiercer of the two. The nest contained two young but 

 a few hours old, and as I was afraid they would either starve, or that Vul- 

 tures or Crows would get them while the mother bird was absent after food, 

 I thought I would try to raise them myself. 



" They throve splendidly on a diet of meat and fish, and the amount 

 they would consume in the course of twenty-four hours was something won- 

 derful. I would stuff them, until I was almost afraid they would burst, in 

 hopes of keeping them quiet for a few minutes ; but it was no use, for the 

 first noise they heard would set them yelling as loud as ever. I kept them 

 until I left Florida, a period of almost two months, and they were then 

 nearly half grown, and the family with whom I lived promised me to care 

 for them. Soon after my departure one of them was injured and died shortly 

 afterward, but the other got along nicely, and on my return the next winter, 



