BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 195 



AQUILA CHRYSAETOS (L). (349.) 



GOLDEN EAGLE. 



That this Eagle has ever reared its brood within our borders 

 I cannot say, but it is a well known fact that it visits different 

 parts of the State at intervals. The young of both sexes have 

 been obtained from time to time, and mounted for parties here, 

 and others to carry to the East. 



I have seen no mature specimens amongst those which have 

 come under my observation, yet from the descriptions of spe- 

 cific characters which I have consulted, I am compelled to think 

 that some have been more advanced than the young of the year. 

 It has been repeatedly affirmed by some of the older fur traders 

 who were here before the Indians left, that instances of their 

 breeding on high cliffs of rocks on the north shore of Lake 

 Superior, were known, at the least, forty years ago. If this is 

 true, there are no conceivable reasons why they should not do 

 so still, for on the sea coast they have done so ever since the 

 original settlement of the country. The general inaccessibility 

 of their nesting places renders any special encroachment upon 

 them impracticable. When speaking of this bird in his de- 

 lightful work. Rev. J. Hibbert Langille says: 



"Gra,nd as our common or White-headed Eagle is conceded 

 to be, he is but a commonplace and vulgar bird compared with 

 the present species. Indeed, the Golden Eagle is the noblest 

 bird of our continent. Disdaining carrion, except in extreme 

 hunger, and all ordinary pilfering and predatory habits, he 

 subsists, it would seem, on the noblest game, such as hares, 

 grouse, young fawns, and wild turkeys. Nor does he conde- 

 scend to chase his prey and capture it only after a hot pursuit, 

 after the manner of hawks and falcons, but detecting it afar 

 with his keen eye, swoops down upon it from some obscure 

 height, and takes it by surprise. Then, bearing it away to an 

 elevated point in a tree, or on a high rock, he plucks it clean, 

 and eats at his leisure. The loftiest mountains are his home, 

 and on the shelvings of their most rugged precipices he locates 

 his eyrie. 



"Occasionally he may make a detour into the settled parts of 

 the country, soaring high, and in slow, wide and most majestic 

 circles; or if he pass from one mountain height to some other 

 in the distance, it is by the highest possible pathway in the 

 sky. If he be in certain stages of plumage, with good eyes, 

 and the light favorable, one may distinguish him as a great 



