The Eagle of Mission Ridge 241 



climb the eagles' tree and get pictures in the swaying 

 branches. 



We found the golden eagle a valuable inhabitant of 

 any cattle-range or farming community. His food con- 

 sists almost entirely of the ground squirrels that are so 

 abundant through the California hills and cause such dam- 

 age in the grain-fields. Once when we looked into the nest 

 we found the remains of the bodies of four squirrels lying 

 on its rim. At each visit we examined the food remains 

 about the nest, and I am sure that a very large amount 

 of the eagle's food, if not all, consisted of squirrels. The 

 hills in many places were full of their burrows, and the 

 eagles seemed to have regular watch-towers on the high 

 rocks about, from which they swooped down on their prey. 

 If it were not for the birds of prey about these hilly dis- 

 tricts, some of the places would surely be overrun with 

 harmful creatures of the ground. 



I am satisfied that this family of eagles ate six ground 

 squirrels a day during the period of nesting, and very 

 likely more than that. Those young growing eagles 

 surely needed a fair amount of food each day for about 

 three months, and they were well supphed, to say nothing 

 of what the old birds ate. But even this low estimate 

 would mean the destruction of five hundred and forty 

 squirrels along the hillsides in about three months' time. 

 What would be the total if we estimated the killing for 

 the entire year? This is the permanent home of the 

 eagles and of all the families of hawks and owls along 

 the hills and canons. 



Near the end of our visits to the eagles' nest the coun- 

 try had changed its appearance. The hillsides had lost 



