100 WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 



their young, a person near Norfolk informed me, that, in 

 clearing a piece of wood on his place, they met with a large 

 dead pine tree, on which was a bald eagle's nest and young. 

 The tree being on fire more than half way up, and the flames 

 rapidly ascending, the parent eagle darted around and among 

 the flames, until her plumage was so much injured that it was 

 with difficulty she could make her escape, and even then, she 

 several times attempted to return to relieve her offspring. 



No bird provides more abundantly for its young than the 

 bald eagle. Fish are daily carried thither in numbers, so 

 that they sometimes lie scattered round the tree, and the 

 putrid smell of the nest may be distinguished at the distance 

 of several hundred yards. The young are at first covered 

 with a thick whitish or cream coloured cottony down ; they 

 gradually become of a gray colour as their plumage developes 

 itself; continue of the brown gray until the third year, when 

 the white begins to make its appearance on the head, neck, 

 tail-coverts, and tail ; these, by the end of the fourth year, 

 are completely white, or very slightly tinged with cream ; 

 the eye also is at first hazel, but gradually brightens into a 

 brilliant straw colour, with the white plumage of the head. 

 Such at least was the gradual progress of this change, 

 witnessed by myself, on a very fine specimen brought up 

 by a gentleman, a friend of mine, who, for a considerable 

 time, believed it to be what is usually called the gray eagle, 

 and was much surprised at the gradual metamorphosis. 

 This will account for the circumstance, so frequently observed, 

 of the gray and white-headed eagle being seen together, both 

 being, in fact, the same species, in different stages of colour, 

 according to their difference of age. 



The flight of the bald eagle, when taken into consideration 

 with the ardour and energy of his character, is noble and 

 interesting. Sometimes the human eye can just discern him, 

 like a minute speck, moving in slow curvatures along the face 

 of the heavens, as if reconnoitring the earth at that immense 

 distance. Sometimes he glides along in a direct horizontal 



