Golden Eagle 181 



or on a ledge in the precipitous banks of streams. Dille 

 has taken several nests near Greeley. They are built 

 up of stout sticks, and lined with tufts of grass with 

 the roots still on. The eggs are usually three or four 

 in number and very handsome, being dull-creamy to 

 pale greenish-white, spotted and blotched to a varying 

 extent with hlacs and browns. They average about 

 2-40 X 1-95. 



Genus AQUILA. 



Birds of a large size and robust form — wing 24 to 26 ; bill and claws 

 very powerful, the claw of the hind toe the largest, exceeding the outer 

 toe (without claw). In most structural characters resembling Archi- 

 biiieo, with a fully feathered tarsus. Occiput and nape with lanceolate 

 and acute feathers. 



There is only one species of the genus in the Americas — the Golden 

 Eagle — while in the Old World there are several others. 



Golden Eagle. Aquila chrysaetos. 



A.O.U. Checkhst no 349— Colorado Records— Allen 72, p. 159 ; Drew 

 81, p. 141 ; 85, p. 17 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 197 ; Morrison 88, 

 p. 139 ; 89, p. 8 ; Kellogg 90, p. 87 ; Bendu-e 92, p. 263 ; Lowe 94, 

 p. 267 ; Cooke 97, pp. 75, 204 ; Plenderson 03, p. 235 ; 09, p. 229 ; 

 Dille 03, p. 74 ; Oberholser 06, p. 20 ; Gihnan 07, p. 154 ; Warren 

 08, p. 10 ; Rockwell 08, p. 162 ; Warren 09, p. 14. 



Description. — Male — Above and below dark sepia-brown, often a little 

 lighter about the wing-coverts ; the feathers at the base of the neck 

 elongated and pointed, and a tawny-fulvous shade ; iris brown, bill and 

 claws bluish-horn, cere and feet greenish-j'ellow. Length 32 ; wing 

 24.5; tail 13 ; cubnen 1-9 ; tarsus 3-7. 



The female is larger — wing 25>5, tail 14. A young bird somewhat 

 resenables the adult, but has the basal half of the tail white, the long 

 neok-feathers hardly differentiated, and a good deal of concealed white 

 on the scapulars, breast and primaries. 



Distribution. — The northern portions of the Old and New Worlds, 

 in the latter from Alaska to Labrador south of the Barren Grounds, 

 extending southward in western America nearly to Mexico City, and 

 in the east along the AUeghanies to South CaroUna, chiefly in the 

 mountains. 



In Colorado the Golden Eagle is a far from uncommon resident — 

 chiefly in the mountains, where it breeds from the foothills up to about 



