"The Eagle in Action: An Intimate Study of the Eyrie Life of America's National Bird," by Francis H. Herrick, Sc.D, is the final article in the May, 1929, issue of the National Geographic Magazine. At one time the wild turkey was under consideration to be our American "National Bird." Easily farmed and slaughtered to feed us on our Thanksgiving Day, the turkey never would have fit our American national pride in strength and determination: we know we can SOAR! We dare to EXCEL!
The white-headed or 'bald eagle' is a true native of America and "ranges over nearly the whole of the American continent" (p. 635). After six committees had tried to choose an official bird beginning the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, the eagle became our official bird whose image is emblazoned on our national Coat of Arms on June 20, 1782. "To men of every age he has seemed the very embodiment of freedom and power" (p. 635).
"The female, which in the American eagle is the larger sex, may attain a length of forty-three inches, may spread eight feet, and according to Audubon, may weight from 8 to 12 pounds, though these last figures may be greatly exceeded in captive birds. It is a stranger to fatigue, can probably lift its own weight, and has been known to carry a lamb over a distance of five miles" (p. 635).
For ten years prior to 1929, the eagle was accused of destroying salmon and reindeer in Alaska and was hunted. Forty to fifty thousand eagles were destroyed. How horrifying it is to read today of our protected bird being hunted legally!
When I was recently on a bus tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S.A., an eagle's nest was pointed out in the countryside. In a high tree, it was very large, an inverted cone, perhaps five or six feet long. The eagle's nest is called an 'eyrie.'
Mr. Herrick spent several years in northern Ohio, U.S.A.,, studying eagles' habits from a tent on a platform built 100 feet high. From his high perch, occupied by him or a colleague in three-hour shifts from dawn to dusk, he had a view into an eagles' eyrie, less than forty feet away. The nest was eighty-six feet off the ground in a tree. What he discovered about the birds was truly amazing.
*Eagles mate for life. If one of the pair dies or is killed, the female will search for a new mate, then the pair will return to the nest. If a male is widowed, he will wait at the nest for another female.
*The same nest is used by the same eagles, year after year. It is added to, insofar as the tree can support its weight.
*What enemies could such a large fowl have? The eagles' eggs or the young eaglets could be eaten by crows or vultures. Female and male eagles generally take turns guarding the nest. If they are both away from the nest, eggs or eaglets are covered with grass and straw.
*Eagles are territorial. Mr. Herrick witnessed a terrible fight between the nesting eagles and several others. The male eagle was killed.
From my point of view, it is fitting for me to read and review this article, the first about an animal, in my plan to read my collection of National Geographic Magazines. I am a passionately patriotic American, and the Eagle is a symbol of that pride!
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