Aquila canadensis.

The extreme southern range of the European bird, its gregarious habit, and the frequency of its building in trees, are all peculiarities not observed in the American form. They are not necessarily conclusive, but are at least suggestive.

The Golden Eagle in this country usually constructs its nest on the sides of steep, rocky crags, where its materials are coarsely heaped together on a projecting shelf of rock. These consist of large sticks, loosely arranged, and lined with other softer materials. In rare instances they are said to build on trees, where rocky cliffs are not to be met with. The eggs are usually three in number; sometimes two, or only one. Mr. Audubon describes them as measuring 3.50 inches in length by 2.50 in breadth; the shell thick and smooth, dull white, brushed over with undefined patches of brown, which are most numerous at the larger end. This description is not quite accurate in regard to size. The European egg is presumed to be larger than the American, yet the largest I have ever seen measures but 3.19 inches in length by 2.31 in breadth. An egg of the European bird in the British Museum, and another represented in Hewitson’s British Oölogy, which closely resembled it, were marked over the entire surface with small but distinct blotches of reddish-brown on a white ground. One in my collection, taken in Scotland, is nearly unmarked. A distinctly bluish-white ground is faintly stained with a few very obscure markings of slate and purplish-brown.

Mr. MacFarlane furnishes very full and interesting notes and observations on the habits of our canadensis, as attentively studied by him in the neighborhood of Anderson River, near the Arctic Ocean. Our limits will only permit us to give a summary of his valuable memoranda. In a large majority of instances the nests were built against the face of a steep bank, some sixty or seventy feet from the ground, and about thirty from the summit. They were very strongly constructed with dry sticks, usually of willow, and formed a platform on the top, in the centre of which the eggs were found on a bed composed of moss, hay, and feathers. These platforms were usually about six by seven feet, and ranged from four to six in height. It is said to be “not very scarce in that quarter,” and to be “a resident, in the summer, of the entire Arctic coast and rivers.” Mention is made of ten nests observed by him, and eggs taken therefrom. In several instances these eggs were white and unspotted, exciting his doubts whether they might belong to the leucocephalus.

According to Mr. MacFarlane they feed on ducks, mice, and other small animals, partridges, and the fawn of the reindeer. In confinement they are fierce and nearly untamable, though they readily eat the food that is given them, whether fish or meat. Even when taken young from the nest they evince the same fearless and intractable disposition. In one instance a young female killed its older companion by piercing it with her talons. When first observed, she was standing on and plucking the feathers from the body of the slain bird. This was the second bird this same ferocious, but comparatively tame, Eagle had thus destroyed. When the cage was removed outside, though the weather was very cold, the Eagles did not seem to mind it much, but exercised themselves with jumping off and on their roosting-pole, and seemed very much interested in all that was taking place within the Fort square. They kept their plumage in a cleanly condition, and were generally a very clean bird in all respects. During the fine weather the Eagles were more lively than on other occasions. When feeding they drooped both wings, and, if disturbed, arched their necks and moved their heads in a threatening manner, spreading out their tails like a fan. They grasped the meat or fish in the talons of either leg, and tore it with their beaks. After feeding, they invariably removed any blood or other impurities that may have adhered to the beak by scratching it with their talons or rubbing it against the bars of their cage. Several of these birds, in confinement, especially the female referred to, when their cage was approached, would endeavor to attack Mr. MacFarlane, descending from their sleeping-pole and making a rush at the front bars of the cage, spreading the wings and flapping them with great force, and making active demonstrations with beak and talons. Occasionally they would get out of their cages; then it was no easy matter to get them back again, as, when approached, they would throw themselves on their backs and thrust out their talons in the most formidable manner. They nest as early as the last of April or early in May, as largely developed embryos were found on the 27th of May. When their nests were pillaged they generally deserted them; but in one instance, where the female had been snared upon her nest, and the eggs taken, the same nest was occupied the following season by the male with another mate. The new mate was shot, and proved to be a mature bird. Almost invariably the male birds were too wary to be either shot or taken in a snare. Two of the nests of this bird, pointed out by the Indians, appeared to have been used for several years, and had been known to their discoverers for six or seven years previous. The nests taken were in about latitude 69° 30′.

In one particular case a nest had been discovered two years previously by MacFarlane’s Esquimo interpreter. It had been occupied that season, and a pair of Eagles had been recognized as its inmates. In 1863 the nest was known to have been reoccupied, though he did not visit it. On the 17th of May, 1864, he went to it and found both Eagles engaged in repairing it. The female appeared to act as the builder, and the male as the carrier of the materials, as well as the provider of provisions. The nest was not complete, and contained two half-eaten Ptarmigans, but no eggs. It was built against the face of a steep bank of a small stream, and was of considerable bulk. When first constructed, the nest of this Eagle is comparatively small, but as it is renovated every season, it ultimately becomes large and bulky. A quantity of dry sticks and twigs are laid lengthways over the greater portion of the platform of the previous season, and the spaces between are filled up by smaller twigs, mosses, and hay, and the centre is then covered with the two latter ingredients, intermixed with deer’s hair, etc. This annual addition varies in thickness from three to eighteen inches. In no instance did Mr. MacFarlane find or hear of any accumulation of bones or other débris of food either on or in the neighborhood of the nests. In three instances the nests were constructed in the tops of tall pines. In these cases the sandy nature of the soil did not favor their building on the sides of cliffs.

The “Mountain Eagle,” as this species is called throughout the western regions of the United States, was found by Mr. Ridgway to be a common species throughout the Great Basin along the line of the 40th parallel. It was daily seen soaring about the mountains, and nested on inaccessible cliffs. A pair—the female leading—were observed to give chase to a Sage Hen (Centrocercus urophasianus), chasing her on the wing until the fugitive dropped down to the ground from exhaustion, when she was picked up by the foremost of the Eagles, who then flew off together to the summit of the mountain range (the East Humboldt) near by, where they probably had their nest.

An egg of this bird, taken by Mr. R. MacDonald among the mountains west of the Lower Mackenzie River, measures 2.60 inches in length by 2.18 in breadth. The ground-color is of a rich pinkish cream-color, boldly dashed with large blotches of three or four varying shades of umber-brown, intermingled with a few finer markings of a lighter shade of brown, and a few clouded markings of a purplish-slate. These markings are grouped and confluent about the smaller end. Other specimens vary to whitish, with faint obsolete blotches.

Genus HALIAËTUS, Savigny.