GOLDEN EAGLE. 25 



esting: observations on the food habits during: the breeding season. 

 The nest of a pair near Oakland, Cahf., was kept by him under sur- 

 veillance from the time the eggs were laid until the young had flown, 

 and during this period the food apparently consisted almost entirely 

 of spermophiles (probably Citellus heecheyi). As many as four of 

 these were found lying on the nest at one time, and the remains about 

 the nest, as well as the pellets cast up by the young, came almost 

 wholly from ground squirrels. Mr. Finley estimated that at least 

 six spermophiles were consumed daily by this family of two young 

 and two adult eagles, which seems to be a conservative statement: 

 on this basis 540 spermophiles were destroyed during the three months 

 the young occupied the nest. In an eagle's aery near Marathon, 

 Texas, the writer found, among other things, a spermophile {Citellus 

 mexicanus parvidens), but in this region, doubtless owing to the greater 

 abundance of other food, particularly rabbits and prairie dogs, this 

 animal is apparently not so frequently eaten. Along the Anderson 

 River in Arctic North America, however, the spermophiles {Citellus 

 parryi) that there abound are, according to Mr. R. MacFarlane, an 

 important source of food. 



Tree squirrels {Sciurus) are sometimes captured, though by no 

 means so often as spermophiles. The former have been found in 

 California aeries by Mr. H. R. Taylor and Mr. C. Barlow, and Dr. 

 C. H. Merriam records that an Abert squirrel {Sciurus aherti) was 

 found in the stomach of an eagle killed in August, 1889, on San 

 Francisco Mountain, Arizona. 



Where prairie dogs {Cynomys) occur abundantly in the vicinity of 

 an eagle's aery they furnish by no means a small part of the bird's 

 food, and the number destroyed must be large. In the aery near 

 Marathon, Texas, we found two prairie dogs {Cynomys ludovicianus) 

 practically untouched, while many bones of the same species were 

 recognized in the debris scattered on the rocks below. Mr. Bailey 

 found bones at a nest near Cuervo, New Mexico. Prof. D. E. Lantz 

 informs the writer that in Haskell County, Kans., at a time when 

 prairie dogs were being poisoned, he has seen eagles, principally of 

 the present species, come often to feed on the dead and dying 

 animals, but without apparent injury from the poison. 



Marmots, woodchucks, or ground hogs {Marmota), as they are 

 variously called according to locality, are not infrequently devoured, 

 particularly in the western part of the United States. Mr. J. A. 

 Loring saw an eagle pursuing a half-grown hoary marmot {Marmota 

 caligata) at Henry House, Alberta, in July, 1896, and Maj. C. E. 

 Bendire records that at Camp Harney he has found the half-eaten 

 carcass of a yellow-bellied marmot {Marmota fiaviventra) in a nest of 

 this eagle, and has even surprised an eagle from the ground as it was 

 feeding on one of these animals it had just killed. Brchm states that 



