| One ornithologist tells of the wild cry that rings out from | | | | an eagle egg is smaller than the Canada honker's and |
| the mating birds, over the tops of the trees steeped in | | | | only half the size of a whistling swan's. From such a |
| shadow and awed silence. No other bird is so deeply | | | | small beginning grows the king of the air. Both parents |
| attached to his home. The eagle never leaves his | | | | take turns at incubating, which lasts for about thirty-five |
| bailiwick, except to seek a mate, or when forced to | | | | days. Without stirring, one bird will sit as long as |
| migrate from failure of food supply. Most birds desert | | | | seventy-two patient hours. When very weary it will |
| the nest at the end of one season; it is to them not a | | | | signal the mate with a cluttering sound. Then the |
| home but a cradle. But the eagle each year builds a | | | | change of guard will be made swiftly and quietly. If an |
| new nest on top of the old one. And an eagle may live | | | | eagle must leave the nest unguarded, the sagacious |
| as long as an average man-perhaps longer. So the | | | | creature will rough over the top of the nest with dead |
| nest grows and grows in grandeur, and serves not | | | | leaves to make it look deserted. The eaglets, being |
| only as a cradle but as a permanent home for the | | | | born so small, have a long infancy. And the life they |
| parents, summer and winter. One nest in a tree that | | | | are going to lead is so much more complex than that |
| blew down near Lake Erie was found to weigh nearly | | | | of most birds that their education is long. |
| two tons, and represented several decades of | | | | At first the chicks get food popped in their mouths, but |
| occupancy. Another, found on a rock off the California | | | | when they should begin to feed themselves, the |
| coast, contained several wagonloads of sticks and | | | | parents tear up a fish before the youngsters' eyes to |
| leaves. Coarse branches sometimes six feet long | | | | show them how to do it. Presently they bring a whole |
| formed the breastworks of this bird castle. Within, it | | | | fish and stand back while the little fellows learn to |
| was lined with soft grasses, lichens, moss and | | | | dissect it themselves. Eaglets in their nursery play with |
| feathers. And the view from such a wilderness | | | | sticks, just as children play with toys, and learn to |
| mansion is usually the grandest in the countryside. The | | | | grasp objects with their talons. Before they can fly, |
| female eagle lays two or three white eggs. | | | | they must first get rid of their gray down, and develop |
| The egg of a hummingbird is bigger! - that is, in | | | | and preen their new, strong flight plumage. |
| proportion to the bird that lays it. Not three inches long, | | | | |
