WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 



95 



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 gen* 

 tleman of Virginia assm-ed 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 otlier. As a 

 proof of their attachment to their young, a person near Norfolk 

 informed me, that in clearing a piece of woods 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 co- 

 lored cottony down ; they gradually become of a grey color as their 

 plumage developes itself, continue of the brown grey 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 color, 

 with the white plumage of the head. Such at least was the gra- 

 dual 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 Grey 

 Eagle, and was much surprised at the gradual metamorphosis. 

 This will account for the circumstance, so frequently observed, of 

 the Grey and White-headed Eagle being seen together, both being 



