116 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 61, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



He had seen both ravens and eagles feeding on carcasses of 

 winter-killed sheep. Beals and Longworth, in 1941, reported 

 that local residents on Unimak Island believed that the bald 

 eagle kills caribou fawns. However, this would need verification. 

 It is known, of course, that eagles feed on dead whales and seals. 



It has been thought that bald eagles kill many blue foxes. 

 But, according to the evidence we obtained, this is not the case 

 in the Aleutian district. The remains of only one fox were found 

 in an eagle nest, and these remains could have been carrion 

 because we found a few dead foxes on the beaches. To further 

 refute this theory, many blue fox families were being raised 

 successfully in the vicinity of eagle nests. 



A moderate percentage of fish and invertebrates is eaten by 

 the bald eagle. To what extent this eagle feeds on dead or 

 spawning salmon on the Alaska Peninsula was not determined. 

 In July 1911, at Morzhovoi Bay, Wetmore observed them feeding 

 on dog salmon taken from shallow rapids. Edward D. Crabb 

 (1923) apparently found fish remains to be prominent in nests 

 examined along Alaska Peninsula; there were parts of seven 

 Dolly Varden trout in one nest. Edward J. Reimann (1938) 

 observed a bald eagle taking a mullet out of the water, reaching 

 for it with one foot. Beals and Longworth found two sockeye 

 salmon and the head of a sea gull in a nest on Unimak Island, 

 June 9, 1941. We did not see bald eagles capture live fish, but 

 Atka mackerel were often observed near the surface of the 

 water, where an eagle could very easily seize one. 



In the Aleutian chain proper, the main food of the bald eagle 

 consists of sea birds. There are some indications that fish of 

 various kinds are more prominent in the diet along the Alaska 

 Peninsula, where we did less work on this bird. At any rate, 

 there is abundant evidence that the eagle is not a serious detri- 

 ment to man's interests throughout the Aleutian district. 



Banding 



A number of nestling bald eagles were banded in the Aleutian 

 Islands in 1937. Of these, six returns were obtained. All six 

 had been banded in June; 1 on Little Kiska Island, 2 at Little 

 Sitkin, and 3 (all in one nest) on Rat Island. The following winter, 

 all of these were killed by natives on Attu Island. This shows a 

 westward drift of immature eagles, at least in the western part 

 of the Aleutian chain. 



These eagles are permanent residents in the Aleutian district, 

 summer and winter. 



