Three eggs constitute the usual nest-complement, although two are sometimes laid, and rarely four, and these are deposited on consecutive or alternate days, at the rate of one egg a day. They measure about two and one-half inches in length and one and three-fourths in width, and are of a yellowish-white color, thickly covered with large blotches of different shades of brown. Incubation follows close upon the last deposit, the task being begun by the female, and devolving principally upon her, although the male occasionally relieves her for a brief spell each day. While she is on the nest, he is a jealous husband and a most faithful provider. The choicest catch of his piscatorial exploits is carried directly to the nest and ungrudgingly administered to the patient sitter. When not engaged in providing for their wants he stations himself upon an adjoining tree, if such should happen to be present, or somewhere in the immediate neighborhood, and exercises the closest surveillance over the nest and its occupant. All attempts at intrusion are most summarily punished. Dr. Brewer mentions a case where a lad essayed to reach the nest in order to rob it of its eggs, when he was assailed with so much violence that the male’s talons were driven through a cloth cap that he wore and laid bare the scalp. Experience has proved the risk incurred in visiting these nests with hostile intentions. You may pass and repass underneath the nest, the authors criticising your every movement the while, without calling forth the slightest opposition. When, however, you attempt to mount the tree that contains their cherished treasures, you virtually invite the full measure of their wrath. That the male is affectionately devoted to his partner is shown by Wilson in a case which he cites of a female who was prevented from fishing by a broken leg and that was abundantly supplied with food by her mate. When the young appear they are objects of more than common parental solicitude, the parents vying with each other in rendering them every needed attention and in providing them with a plentiful supply of suitable food. But one parent is absent from the nest at a time, the other remaining at home to guard against danger. They are ravenous feeders, and soon attain to full development, when they resemble very closely in dress their parents, having the upper parts spotted with pale reddish-brown or white. Adult birds are dark-brown or grayish-brown above, with most of the head, neck and under parts white, the chest in the female, and sometimes in the male, being spotted with brown. The tail, usually paler than the back, has six or seven dusky bars, and is tipped with white.