The Southern Bald Eagle 



early November. The average date for fresh eggs on the Santa Barbara 

 Islands is March 1st. 



The nest, which is an immense pile of sticks, lined with fine twigs 

 and grass, and other soft substances, is usually placed on some lesser 

 promontory or a sharp, inaccessible ridge near the ocean. The historic 

 pile figured on page 17 13 measured twelve feet by six on top, the larger 

 diameter being along the crest of the ridge; and contained no less than two 

 wagonloads of accumulated materials. Another, from which the M. C. O. 

 took two heavily incubated eggs on the 20th of March, 1919, was built up 

 on a slanting ridge, so that the lower or seaward face was fourteen feet in 

 depth, although the top of the nest was only four feet by six. 



Occasionally nests are built in pine trees, and this is the almost 

 invariable custom in the interior. Not only are the trees in which they 

 are built usually hard to climb, but it is often difficult, or well nigh impos- 

 sible, to pass the bulging sides of the nest so as to obtain access to the 

 eggs themselves. 



Both sexes share the duty of incubation, which lasts something over 

 a month, and the two birds are occasionally to be seen together at the 



nest, the one standing, and the other squatting 

 upon the eggs. The eggs are two, rarely three, 

 pure white or bluish white, and are 

 laid at intervals of two or 

 three days. There 

 is often quite a 

 discrepancy 



Taken on San Clements Island 



I7l6 



UPHOLSTERED AND TRIMMED 



Photo by D. R. Dickey 



