AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.- Washington 
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CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. ALLEN & CO., 189 Water-st., New- York. 
VOL. XIV.—NO. 13.] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. 9i. 
Jbr prospectus, ®erms, $tt. t 
CW SEE LAST PAGE.^gJ 
Every one writing to the Editor or 
Pubiishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
Judd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
er business should be directed to Allen & 
Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
THE AMERICAN WHITE HEAD OR BALD EAGLE. 
In whiling away an evening we shall be 
excused by our readers if we occasionally 
turn from the strict line of agricultural ad¬ 
vancement, to give a notice of things not 
familiar, as of old, but still interesting to the 
lover of Natural History. Among the most 
prominent of these, is that truly American 
bird, adopted as our national emblem, the 
White Head Eagle. 
This majestic bird is still found along the 
inhabited sea-shores throughout the United 
States, and on the great rivers, and lakes of 
the interior; but in numbers much less than 
in the earlier settlements, where it had long 
held its abodes. It is described with great 
eloquence, and at much length, by both Wil¬ 
son and Audubon, in their American Orni¬ 
thologies ; and from them we learn that it is 
a predatory creature, preying chiefly upon 
the spoils of others, and possessing few of 
the noble qualities attributed to it by tradi¬ 
tion, or that would recommend it as the na¬ 
tional emblem of a magnanimous people. 
For many years a family of W T hite Head 
eagles have held a domicil on our farm, just 
below Lake Erie, on the Niagara, where 
successive families of young have been 
reared and taken their flight. The Niagara 
has ever been a favorite resort of the Bald 
Eagle. Early travelers mention them as 
abounding, for miles, around the cataract. 
We have never, to our knowledge, suffered 
from their depredations ; although often de¬ 
tecting them preying upon the dead fish 
which have floated to the shores of the river, 
or been left by the fishermen. We have al¬ 
ways regarded them with complacency, as 
one of the interesting family of wild birds 
that for ages have dwelt around a spot which, 
from its peculiar accordance with their natu¬ 
ral habits, has been their chosen home. 
As no more than a single pair of eagles 
usually occupy a nesting ground, the bound¬ 
aries of which may extend a mile, or more, 
either way, the family that hold dominion 
over our place have been in constant pos¬ 
session since we first knew it, near twenty 
years ago. The young hover about for the 
first year, and usually disappear for some 
other region the next spring, or at a year 
old. They seldom breed till they acquire 
the white head and tail, which is at about 
three years of age. At the approach of the 
pairing season, in April, they usually leave 
the river-shore for their nest in the woods, 
only going out for the purpose of food, un 
til the young are large enough to leave the 
nest with them. They then loiter about 
their usual hunting-grounds, preying on the 
spoils of other birds, or the dead fish and 
carrion lying along the shores. After the 
first deep fall of snow in the winter, we have 
frequently found three or four, and some¬ 
times more, of them sitting together on the 
high branch of a dead tree, where, if on 
horseback, or with a team of horses or oxen, 
they can be very nearly approached without 
alarm—indeed we have rode on horseback 
within an hundred feet of them, while they 
lookeddown upon us withgreatcomplacency. 
They will so sit for a whole day, and only 
move oflf at night to their roosting place in 
the woods. During the winter they hover 
about the river-shore continually, and in se¬ 
vere weather are often seen floating down 
the stream on a cake of ice, devouring a 
fish, the body of a gull, or duck, which they 
have captured or have found killed or wound¬ 
ed by some hunter. Almost every winter 
some of the young eagles have been shot by 
the hunters, and occasionally one has been 
caught from the nest and taken to the neigh¬ 
boring city, as a pet or curiosity. 
The writer once had an encounter of this 
latter kind, and as it was, in its results, some¬ 
what of an adventure, we shall record it. 
When about eighteen years old, spending 
some time in the vicinity of one of the great 
lakes, one fine May morning we went with 
a companion down to the shore where a 
fisherman had put up a shanty, and with his 
wife and an infant child had taken up their 
summer residence. On our way down, and 
about a hundred rods from the water, in the 
topmost branches of an enormous oak, we 
spied an eagle’s nest, and as the old eagles 
were wheeling about it, we concluded that 
the nest had either eggs or young within it, 
and which of the two we soon determined to 
ascertain. As our companion was a middle- 
aged man, and had no special taste for climb¬ 
ing, the adventure was left for me alone. 
The tree on which the nest was built had no 
limbs for thirty feet or more from the ground, 
but, fortunately, a smaller tree near it had 
been felled, and its top lodged midway up 
among the branches of the oak. Ascending 
the fallen tree, I soon reached the oak, and 
catching the huge limbs above me, I swung 
up on one after another until I stood on one 
a few feet beneath the trio of branches on 
which the nest lay. During rny ascent one 
of the eagles, with vociferous cries, often 
wheeled within a dozen feet of my head ; 
but, like other youngsters, as I had at the 
time quite as much courage as conduct, I 
stood in little fear of an attack. Well post¬ 
ed on a strong limb, with a near branch to 
hold on by, I looked into the nest It was 
built of strong, heavy sticks, laid crosswise, 
perhaps two feet in thickness from bottom 
to top, and four or five feet wide on the sur¬ 
face, covered with long, dry grass, and 
leaves. About midway on the nest lay two 
young eagles, one somewhat larger than the 
other, about the size of half-grown goslings, 
and covered with the same sort of down, in 
color and appearance. Close by them lay 
two or three dead fish, half covered with 
blue-bottle flies, and giving off an intolerable 
stench. With a stick, which I drew out of 
the lower part of the nest, I tried to poke 
one of the young towards me ; but they 
turned up their claws in defiance, with a sort 
of hiss, and edged further away. During 
this time one of the old eagles had left the 
premises altogether, while the other still 
kept wheeling and diving around, but ap¬ 
proached no nearer than within a few feet 
of me, as before. After awhile my contin¬ 
ued poking at the young ones so exasperated 
one of them, that he seized my stick so firm¬ 
ly with his claws that I drew him within 
reach. Determined to hold divided empire 
with the old eagles in the possession of their 
young, the next process was to get the bird 
to the ground without damage, as I had no 
sack or basket in which to deposit and let 
him safely down ; but, like other youngsters, 
who are seldom at a loss for expedients in 
mischief, apian was soon invented. Taking 
off my hat, coat, and vest, and laying them 
on the adjacent limb, my shirt was rapidly 
drawn over my head, the sleeves tied to¬ 
gether at the wristbands, and thrown over 
my neck, the skirts bound into a knot, thus 
making a sack, and the open collar and 
bosom forming its mouth. Into this con 
amore receptacle our bellicose “Young Amer¬ 
ica” was rapidly thrust, my outer garments 
replaced, and, flushed with victory, I made 
