WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 99 



sometimes take place in our western forests, many thousands 

 of them were drowned in attempting to cross the Ohio ; and 

 at a certain place, not far from Wheeling, a prodigious number 

 of their dead bodies were floated to the shore by an eddy. 

 Here the vultures assembled in great force, and had regaled 

 themselves for some time, when a bald eagle made his appear- 

 ance, and took sole possession of the premises, keeping the 

 whole vultures at their proper distance for several days. He 

 has also been seen navigating the same river on a floating 

 carrion, though scarcely raised above the surface of the water, 

 and tugging at the carcase, regardless of snags, sawyers, 

 planters, or shallows. He sometimes carries his tyranny to 

 great extremes against the vultures. In hard times, when 

 food happens to be scarce, should he accidentally meet with 

 one of these who has its craw crammed with carrion, he 

 attacks it fiercely in the air ; the cowardly vulture instantly 

 disgorges, and the delicious contents are snatched up by the 

 eagle before they reach the ground. 



The nest of this species is generally fixed on a very large 

 and lofty tree, often in a swamp or morass, and difficult to be 

 ascended. On some noted tree of this description, often a 

 pine or cypress, the bald eagle builds, year after year, for a 

 long series of years. When both male and female have been 

 shot from the nest, another pair has soon after taken posses- 

 sion. The nest is large, being added to and repaired every 

 season, until it becomes a black, prominent mass, observable 

 at a considerable distance. It is formed of large sticks, sods, 

 earthy rubbish, hay, moss, &c. Many have stated to me that 

 the female lays first a single egg, and that, after having sat 

 on it for some time, she lays another ; when the first is 

 hatched, the warmth of that, it is pretended, hatches the other. 

 Whether this be correct or not, I cannot determine; but a 

 very respectable gentleman of Virginia assured me, that he 

 saw a large tree cut down, containing the nest of a bald eagle, 

 in which were two young, one of which appeared nearly three 

 times as large as the other. As a proof of their attachment to 



