WHITE-HEADED OR BALD EAGLE. 61 



land bird with which I am acquainted, generally in the month of December. 

 At this time, along the Mississippi, or by the margin of some lake not far in 

 the interior of the forest, the male and female birds are observed making a 

 great bustle, flying about and circling in various ways, uttering a loud cack- 

 ling noise, alighting on the dead branches of the tree on which their nest is 

 already preparing, or in the act of being repaired, and caressing each other. 

 In the beginning of January incubation commences. I shot a female, on the 

 17th of that month, as she sat on her eggs, in which the chicks had made 

 considerable progress. 



The nest, which in some instances is of great size, is usually placed on a 

 very tall tree, destitute of branches to a considerable height, but by no means 

 always a dead one. It is never seen on rocks. It is composed of sticks, 

 from three to five feet in length, large pieces of turf, rank weeds, and Spanish 

 moss in abundance, whenever that substance happens to be near. When 

 finished, it measures from five to six feet in diameter, and so great is the 

 accumulation of materials, that it sometimes measures the same in depth, it 

 being occupied for a great number of years in succession, and receiving 

 some augmentation each season. When placed in a naked tree, between the 

 forks of the branches, it is conspicuously seen at a great distance. The 

 eggs, which are from two to four, more commonly two or three, are of a 

 dull white colour, and equally rounded at both ends, some of them being 

 occasionally granulated. Incubation lasts for more than three weeks, but I 

 have not been able to ascertain its precise duration, as I have observed the 

 female on different occasions sit for a few days in the nest, before laying the 

 first egg. Of this I assured myself by climbing to the nest, every day in 

 succession, during her temj)orary absence, — a rather perilous undertaking 

 when the bird is sitting. 



I have seen the young birds when not larger than middle-sized pullets. 

 At this time, they are covered with a soft cottony kind of down, their bill 

 and legs appearing disproportionately large. Their first plumage is of a 

 greyish colour, mixed with brown of different depths of tint, and before the 

 parents drive them off from the nest they are fully fledged. As a figure of 

 the Young White-headed Eagle will appear in the course of the publication 

 of my Illustrations, I shall not here trouble you with a description of its 

 appearance. I once caught three young Eagles of this species, when fully 

 fledged, by having the tree, on which their nest was, cut down. It caused 

 great trouble to secure them, as they could fly and scramble much faster than 

 any of our party could run. They, however, gradually became fatigued, and 

 at length were so exhausted as to offer no resistance, when we were securing 

 them with cords. This happened on the border of Lake Pontchartrain, in 



