FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 115 



number of young, in a series of 34 nests, varied from 1 to 3 per 

 nest, though in 1941 Beals and Longworth reported a nest with 

 4 young. In 1 nest, there was 1 live youngster and 1 partly 

 eaten dead youngster; in 2 other nests, there was 1 young and 

 1 rotten egg containing an embryo. All of these must be con- 

 sidered as having had two fertile eggs originally. On that basis, 

 there were 12 nests with 1 young, 17 nests with 2 young or eggs, 

 and 5 nests with 3 young. 



In every nest that we observed, the nesting birds were white- 

 headed adults. One report, from Cecil Williams in 1936, indicated 

 a nesting pair, in immature plumage, on Uliaga Island. 



Food Habits 



I have discussed the food of this eagle in detail in "Food 

 habits of the northern bald eagle in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska" 

 (Condor, 1940, vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 198-202). The data presented 

 were based on examination of 28 nests. In addition to this 

 published material, data from 4 other nests are available, com- 

 prising 21 more food items. This additional material agrees with 

 the published percentages. 



In the Aleutian district, birds constitute the major part of the 

 bald eagle's diet — 58.9 percent on the basis of material obtained 

 in 1936; 86 percent for 1937. As would be expected, most of 

 the birds taken are the so-called sea birds, chiefly shearwaters, 

 fulmars, cormorants, glaucous-winged gulls, murres, ancient 

 murrelets, paroquet auklets, crested auklets, and horned and 

 tufted puffins. Fulmars and shearwaters head the list. Two 

 ravens had been eaten. Others taken included: Petrels, kitti- 

 wakes, pigeon guillemots, ptarmigan, least auklets, and ducks, 

 though none of these are taken in great numbers. Ducks were not 

 preyed on extensively, probably because of the abundance of other 

 birds, although harlequin ducks, oldsquaws, European teals, 

 pintails, common eiders, red-breasted mergansers, and three 

 emperor geese were identified in food remains. 



Mammals are not universally available to eagles in this district 

 and are seldom found in the diet. The ground squirrel is by far 

 the most common mammal captured. Others, which occasionally 

 are taken, are the house rat, the field mouse, the blue fox, and, 

 possibly, the domestic sheep at Umnak Island. In 1938, Scheffer 

 reported that one of the men in charge of the sheep on Umnak 

 Island declared that he had never seen eagles bothering live sheep, 

 though they will eat carrion. Another informant, a sheep herder 

 at Unalaska, said that eagles will not bother healthy sheep, 

 but they will attack dying ones and will feed on dead ones. 



