WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 
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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 gra- 
dually 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 
line, at a vast height, with expanded and unmoving wings, 
till he gradually disappears in the distant blue ether. Seen 
