88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
lived only long enough to crawl out of its shell, while a second egg was 
bad. No sooner was the little one dead, than the work of reconstruc- 
tion, that is building on the old site was begun, and the body of the 
chick, treated as so much nesting material, was soon buried under new 
layers of grass and chips (Fig. 18). This labor lasted for four days, 
or as long as I was able to watch it, but as in the other cases described, 
it was sure to be futile owing to the lateness of the season. 
Fish hawks and eagles are known to return to their old nests year 
after year, adding fresh materials, that is, building on the old site, each 
season. An eagle’s nest of the first year (compare Figs. 20 and 21) 
is broader than tall, but with the yearly increment of stubble and sticks 
added to its top, it gradually rises in vertical height, until becoming 
so much taller than broad, in certain situations it tends to topple over 
from sheer weight. The older of the two nests of the white-headed 
eagle, which are here shown (Fig. 21), was begun in the crotch of a 
dead sycamore, 77 feet from the ground at North Springfield, Ohio, 
in 1885, and occupied for fifteen years, or until January, 1900, when 
this ancient landmark was laid low in a storm. With the aid of photo- 
graphs, taken in May, 1899,° and by actual measurements which I later 
made on the prostrate tree, the dimensions of this great nest were 
exactly determined. It was nine feet high and six feet in diameter, 
or three feet taller than broad, and contained rather more than three 
cubic yards of wood, earth and stubble. The new nest (Fig. 20), 
which was built in the spring of 1900, was examined and photographed 
in June of the same year; now after the lapse of a decade, it has much 
the appearance of the older nest, having risen greatly in height. Such 
a structure might be regarded as a kind of “ multiple nest,” being com- 
posed of increments, corresponding in number to the years of occupa- 
tion, the last “nest” being built on the site of that of the previous 
year. 
But a more interesting fact, if true, is the statement of Audubon® 
and others that ospreys and eagles often repair their nests in the 
autumn, as if in anticipation of the needs of the coming year. We can 
readily accept the fact, but not the interpretation, for if such a practise 
really occurs, it is plainly due to the rise of a new reproductive cycle, 
which is begun but soon checked. The sporadic return of the nest- 
building instinct at the close of the season is essentially the same in 
hawk or gull, and can imply no more intelligent forethought in one 
case than in the other. 
2By Mr. H. E. Denio, of Milesgrove, Pa., to whose kindness I am indebted 
for their present as well as a former use. 
2 Audubon speaks only of the fish hawks, which he says but seldom alight 
on the ground, as “ when they collect materials for the purpose of repairing 
their nest at the approach of autumn.” “ Ornithological Biography,” Vali 
p. 419, Edinburgh, 1831. 
