FALCO LEUCOCEPHALUS. 
28 
description, often a pine or cypress, the bald eagl® 
builds, year after year, for a long' series of yeai'" 
When both male and female have been shot from tl**'’ 
nest, another pair has soon after taken possession. Th® 
nest is largo, being added to and repaired every seasoJ*> 
until it becomes a blaidt prominent mass, observable at “ 
considerable distainre. It is formed of larg»‘ sticks, so<hi 
earthy rubbish, hay, moss, &c. Many have stated 1* 
me that the female lavs tirst a single egg, and thab 
after having sat on it for some time, she lays another > 
when the iirst is hatched, the warmth of that, it 
pretended, hatches the other. Whether this be corref 
or not, I cannot determine ; but a very res])ectabl® 
gentleman of Virginia assured me, that he saw a hu’r® 
tree cut down, containing the nest of a bald eagle, '■* 
which were two young, one of which appeared near!/ 
three times as large as the other. As a proof of the't 
attachment to their young, a person near Norfol}' 
informed me, that, in clearing a piece of wood on h' 
place, they met with a large (haul pine tree, on whn- 
was a bald eagle’s nest and young. The free being 
fire more than half way up, and the flames rapi<l‘' 
ascending, the parent eagle darted around and aiuoi'e 
the flames, until her plumage n as so much injured th* 
it was with difliculty she could make her escape, 
even then, she several times attempted to return 
relieve her ott'spring. 
No bird provides more abundantly for its young thi*'^ 
the bald eagle. Fish are daily carried thither in nn^' 
hers, so that they sometimes lie scattered round 
tree, and the piifrid smell of the nest may be dist''*_ 
guished at the distance of si’veral hundred yards. TI'J 
young are at first covered with a thick whitish 
cream coloured cottony down ; they gradually beco''' 
of a gray colour as their jilumago tlevelopes 'bs® ’ 
continue of the brown gray until the third year, 
the white begins to make its appearance on the h®>* ’ 
neck, tail coverts, and tail ; these by the end ot 
fourth year are completely white, or very slightly 
with cream ; the eye also is at first hazel, but gradua' ; 
