634 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL UIHT. SOCIETY, Fol. XXVL 



the Alpine pastures, until the youngster leaves the 

 nest and is able to accompany the parents, which is 

 not until the end of August or beginning of September. 

 Now', the Golden Eagle is essentially a falcon in his 

 mode of hunting, and kills his quarry in the open. His 

 great spread of Aving is all against his hunting amongst 

 trees. This fact is a safe guard to all the pheasants 

 during the breeding season. The Snow Cock and the 

 Monal who feed a good deal in the open, are safe from 

 him from April to September, and the Kalij is safe 

 because he seldom ventures far into open ground. The 

 Koklass, on the other hand has the pace to get clean 

 aAvay from the eagle. I have flushed Koklas s on many 

 occasions at the edge of a deep nallah when an eagle 

 appeared in view, and though I have seen some good 

 chases, the Koklass has always got clear away. The 

 environmeiits of a Golden Eagle's nest gives one a very 

 good idea of his depredations, during the time the 

 youngster is in the nest. C!r6w's beaks and feet pre- 

 dominate to a very large extent ; next, in order, comes 

 the Large Red Flying Squirrel {Pteromys inornalus). 

 judging from the bits of fur and tails which strew 

 the ground below. A village cat or two, and on one 

 occasion, I found the remains of a fox and on another, 

 the skull and tail of a fairly recently killed pine 

 marten. Out of the nest from Avhich I took the 

 young one near Baghi, were taken a few feathers 

 and bits of a freshly killed pheasant, and that a 

 Koklass, so they do occasionally fall victims, but 

 when one considers the harm done to game, Chikor 

 in particular, by the Jungle Crow (('. macrohynclms). 

 anything which tends to reduce their numbers ^Wth 

 the regularity of the Golden Eagle, might well be 

 allowed some latitude on his own account, and still 

 have the balance well to his credit. 



Shepherds all over the higher Himalayas tell of 

 Golden Eagles carrying ofl' young lambs, and I have 

 myself seen a pair attack a musk-deer, which just 

 escaped hj running into some dense cover. Near 

 Gungotrie, in the Tehri Gm-hwal State, I saw one attack 

 a full groM-n Tahr, and though I did not actually see 

 the animal being struck, I saw it flying through space 

 over a thousand feet of cliff, to be badly smashed up 

 among the rocks beloAA'. As it landed within a few 

 hundred feet of me, I went and examined it, and foimd 

 a clean cut extending from behind the ear to half-way 

 down the neck, evidently the mark of the formidable 

 hind talon of the eagle. Two eagles circled over us 

 the whole time. Though cases of their killing very 

 small lambs and kids may not be very uncommon, I 

 should think it is very seldom that they attack full 

 groA\''n Tahr, and, in this case, they must have either 

 been very hard pressed for food, or came upon a 

 sick or wounded 'animal. 



Blanford mentions that this eagle lives on "gallina 

 ceous birds, and on mammals, such as hares, lamba,. 



