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 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.
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