Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1855-08-09
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THE AMERICAN BALD EAGLE.

In willing away an evening we shall be ey-
cused by our readers if We occasionally turn
from the strict line ofagricultural advancement,
to give notice to 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 ofthe
interior butin number much less than in the
earlier settlements, where it had long held its
abode. 1t is described with much eloquence,
and at much length, by both Wilson and Au-
dubon, in their American Ornithologies and
from them we earn that it is a predatory
ture preying chiefly upon the spoils of others,
and possessing few of the noble qualities attrib
uted toit by tradition, or that would recon-
mend it as the national emblem of a magnani-
nous people. For many years family of
White Head eagles have held 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 Ea-
gle Early travellers mention them as abound
ing, for miles, around the cataract. We have
never, to our knowledge, suffered from their
depredations !; although often detecting them
preying upon the dead fish which have foated
to the shores of the river, or been left by the
fishermen. We have always regarded them
with complacency, as one of the interesting
family of wild birds that for ages have dwelt
around spot which, from its peculiar accor-
dance with their natural habits, has been their
chosen home.
As no more than single pair of eagles usu-
ally occupy nesting ground, the boundaries
of which may extend mile, or more, either
way, the family that hold dominion over our
place have been in constant possession sine,
We first knew it, near twenty years ago, The
young hover about for the first year, and usu-
ally 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, until
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 carton lying along
the shores After the first deep fall of snow
in the winter, we have frequently found three
or four, and sometimes more of them sitting
IL. .bo ofo
where, if on horseback, OF with a team OF horses
or oxen, they can be very nearl y approached
without alarm-indeed, we have rode on horse
back within an hundred feet of them, while
they looked down upon us with great compla-
cency. They will so sit for a whole day, and
only move off at night to their roosting place
in the woods. During the winter, they hover
about the river-shore continually, and in severe
weather arc often seen floating down the stream
on cake of ice, devouring fish, the body OF
a gull, or duck, which they have captured OF
have found killed or wounded by some hunter.
Almost every winter, some of the young eagles
have been shot by the hunters, and occasion
ally one has been caught from the nest and
taken 70 the neighboring city, as pet or Gu
riosity.
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 compan,
ion down to the shore where fisherman had
put up shanty, and with his wife and an in
tant child had taken up their summer residence
On our way down, and about hundred rods
from the water, in the topmost branches of an
enormous oak, we spied an eagles nest, and as
the old eagles were wheeling about it, we con-
cluded that the nest had either eggs or young
within it, and which of the two we soon deter
mined to ascertain. As our companion was a
middle-aged man, and Rad no special taste fol
climbing, the adventure was left for me alone
The tree Oh which the nest was built had nc
limbs for thirty feet or more from the ground,