296 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



I negotiate the remaining few feet. The nest occupied the whole of 

 a small shelf on a nearly perpendicular cliff. The nest measured 

 about 4 feet in height and about 5 feet in width; it was a mass of 

 large and small sticks, brush, and weeds and was profusely lined 

 with dry and green sprigs of a stringy weed, which is very common 

 here, and a few bits of down. It held one handsome egg on March 



II (pi. 81). 



In Los Angeles County on February 28 we flushed an eagle off a 

 tree nest, where she probably had eggs; we did not climb to it, since 

 Mr. Sumner was planning to make a study of the young later on, as 

 he had done previously. The nest was 65 feet from the ground in 

 the largest of a small group of sycamores in a hollow among low 

 grassy hills. The eagle flew off when we were 100 yards away and 

 did not return (pi. 80). 



The other tree nest, from which the eagle had V)een seen to fly on 

 two previous occasions, was visited on March 8. It was about 60 

 feet up in a big eucalyptus and well hidden in the thick foliage. 

 The tree stood in an open field among the foothills of a rocky range 

 in Los Angeles County. There were no eagles about, and the nest 

 had apparently been robbed. A short distance away, in a small 

 clump of eucalyptus trees, was another old nest, probably an alter- 

 nate site. 



Much has been published on tlie nesting habits of the golden eagle 

 in California, as the eggs are handsome and high priced and conse- 

 quently very popular among collectors ; I have seen many large series 

 in California collections. A large majority of the nests seem to be 

 placed in trees, mainly in various oaks, sycamores, redwoods, and 

 pines. The heights from the ground vary from 20, or even 10, feet 

 in low oaks up to 75 or 96 feet in tall pines or redwoods. The nest 

 is made of large sticks, some over 2 inches in diameter, firmly inter- 

 woven, smaller sticks, twigs, brush, roots, grass, leaves, pieces of 

 sacking, and other bulky rubbish; the lining is of softer materials, 

 grasses, weeds, dead and green leaves, soft mosses, and lichens. 

 Green grass, or green leaves, often attached to the twigs, are added 

 from time to time, especially after the young are hatched. Milton 

 S. Ray says in his notes : "The lining frequently varies with the par- 

 ticular pair of birds and also with the localit3\ A nest I found at a 

 high altitude on a lofty and barren mountain side was merely lined 

 with coarse roots. One in an oak-wooded canyon was lined with 

 eucalyptus leaves, although no such trees were visible for miles 

 around. Another nest was beautifully draped, hung, and lined with 

 gray-green oak moss. So thickly was it covered with moss that it 

 was very difficult to discern from a distance. Nests found in the 

 humid coast belt in the great redwood forests were much more 

 warmly lined; a typical nest was very thickly lined with rabbit fur 



