BALD EAGLE. 13 



for food, and of these the various kinds of gulls probably most often. 

 Mr. Everett Smith, writing in Forest and Stream," describes an 

 unsuccessful attack upon a loon {Gavia immer) in Maine, ostensibly 

 for the fish it had apparently just caught, but possibly with a more 

 sinister purpose; and Mr. W. W. Worthington gives an instance of 

 the capture ot a Florida cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus Jloridanus) 

 at Darien, Ga.^ 



The bald eagle preys to only a limited extent on the native galli- 

 naceous birds, and then probably for the most part when other 

 means of sustenance are scarce. In Alaska it lives somewhat on 

 ptarmigan {Lagopus), particularly in winter, when ducks and geese 

 are gone and fish comparatively hard to obtain. Mr. G. Eifrig 

 records finding a young eagle fighting a wild turkey on Knobley 

 Mountain near Cumberland, Maryland. Audubon says that the bald 

 eagle used to frequent the roosts and breeding places of the passenger 

 pigeon {Ecto pistes migratorius) for the purpose of picking up the 

 young birds that happened to fall from the nests or any old ones 

 that chanced to be wounded, but that it seldom followed the migrat- 

 ing flocks of pigeons. 



POULTRY. 



Domestic fowls, principally chickens and ducks, are sometimes 

 killed, to which fact several writers testify. Mr. Charles F. Batch- 

 elder was informed that in northeastern Florida the eagle at times 

 carried off poultry, even venturing near the houses for this purpose. 

 Dr. S. D. Judd found a recently killed Plymouth Rock hen in the 

 nest of a pair of eagles near Marshall Hall, Md.; he also states that 

 at the same place domestic ducks are occasionally taken. Yet this 

 eagle does not seem to be a confirmed chicken stealer, and levies on 

 poultry only when most accessible or when other supplies fail. 



MAMMALS. 



Mammals of many kinds constitute a considerable share of the food, 

 but the larger quadrupeds are not often attacked. The four-footed 

 animal, unless a large one, when struck by the eagle has little chance 

 for escape, since one talon usually pins the two fore legs and head 

 together, while the other pinions the hind feet, and the beak soon 

 breaks the spine of the victim. If the animal be too large to be 

 carried away, the eyes are the first point of attack. 



At favorable opportunities this eagle preys upon fawns, and 

 pressed by hunger will sometimes attack a full-gr()wn deer, particu- 

 larly if the latter be wounded. Remains of a mule deer {Odocoilcus 

 canus) were found hj Dr. E. A. Mearns in the stomach of one from 

 the Mogollon Mountains, Arizona. Mr. E. W. Nelson is authority 

 for the statement that in northern Alaska it feeds at times on young 



o Vol. Ill, 1875, p. 324. 



6 Bendirc, Life Histories of North American Birds [II, 1892, p. 279. 



