98 
WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE, 
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 appearance, 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 carcass, 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 possession. 
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 their young, a person near Norfolk informed me, that, in 
clearing a piece of wood on his place, they met with a large 
