THE NOETH AMEEIOAN EAGLES AND THEIE ECONOMIC 



EELATIONS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The present purpose is to bring together such facts as have bearing 

 on the economic relations of the North American eagles; and this 

 bulletin has therefore to do with the distribution of the several spe- 

 cies, their general manner of life, as well as, most important of all, 

 their food habits. It is difficult to obtain stomachs of eagles for ex- 

 amination, hence few data of this kind have been available at first 

 hand ; but all other sources of information have been utilized in order 

 that this report may represent as nearly as possible our present knowl- 

 edge of the subject. 



Wherever eagles occur commonly they are among the best known of 

 birds. They appear frequently in the language and legends of ancient 

 peoples, and often have been chosen as national emblems, since for 

 size, powerful flight, and fierce nature they have been celebrated from 

 earliest historic times. Though found in almost every quarter of the 

 globe — North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Aus- 

 tralia, and the East India Islands — they are most numerous in 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa. North America possesses but four species, 

 only two of which— the golden eagle and the bald eagle — are of gen- 

 eral distribution and thus of particular economic interest in this region ; 

 while the harpy eagle reaches our territory, if at all, as merely a casual 

 visitor to Texas, and may properly be left out of the present con- 

 sideration. 



Eagles are popularly supposed to be quite difl"erent from hawks, 

 but, in a word, the}^ are nothing more than large hawks. Few birds 

 exceed or even equal them in duration of life, for they reach some- 

 times the age of nearly a hundred years. They are not usually 

 sociable, but live singly or in pairs and dwell in the wilder places in 

 all kinds of country from tropical deserts to the Arctic regions. 

 In their search for food, however, they often wander far, and embold- 

 ened by hunger even approach the abodes of man. In story books 

 and newspapers eagles have many times been accused of carrying 

 off young children, but most if not all such tales are wholly unreliable. 



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