304 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



great courage in attacking animals larger than itself, many of which 

 are capable of inflicting severe injury on the brave bird. The list 

 of mammals recorded includes deer and their fawns, antelopes, lambs 

 of mountain sheep, goats and their kids, domestic calves, lambs, 

 dogs, cats, young pigs, foxes, hares, rabbits, ground and arboreal 

 squirrels, raccoons, prairie dogs, woodchucks, marmots, spermophiles, 

 porcupines, opossums, skunks, weasels, martens, pocket gophers, rats, 

 mice, and moles. The list of birds is not so long, but it includes great 

 blue heron, turkeys, geese, ducks, goshawk, red-tailed hawk and short- 

 eared owl (both twice recorded), sage-hen and other grouse, ptarmi- 

 gan, quails, band-tailed pigeon, crow, domestic poultry, curlews, 

 plovers, kingfisher, meadowlarks, and thrushes. Birds, particularly 

 the smaller species, are taken mainly during the nesting season as 

 tender food for the young. But at all seasons mammals seem to be 

 preferred. Eagles kill many snakes and an occasional tortoise ; they 

 often feed on carrion when live game is scarce. 



The stomach contents of 30 golden eagles reported by Howard 

 Kay Gloyd (1925) show their preference for mammals during the 

 fall and winter months; 11 had eaten cottontail rabbits, 7 had taken 

 jack rabbits, 9 prairie dogs, and 1 each had eaten a woodchuck, a 

 ground squirrel, a short-eared owl, an opossum, a fox squirrel, and a 

 red-tailed hawk. 



There are numerous, apparently authentic, reports of these eagles 

 killing large mammals. F. C. Willard (1916b) reports the killing of 

 a four-point white-tailed deer in Arizona. 



The deer had been pounced upon by one or more eagles as it floundered in 

 the deep snow, and its baclc was fearfully lacerated by the talons. After it 

 had succumbed, the carcass was dragged down-hill over one hundred yards 

 until it lodged against a large boulder. Three eagles were feeding on it when 

 first discovered by some prospecters. ♦ ♦ * 



Recently two cowboys in the employ of Mr. Lutley came upon three eagles 

 feeding upon the body of a calf about seven months old. * * • The back 

 of this calf gave every evidence that it had been killed by the eagles. 



C. F. Morrison (1889) reports that a golden eagle in Montana "had 

 captured and killed a good sized Black-tail Deer, and was shot while 

 sitting on its body." Mrs. Seton Gordon (1927), while watching a 

 nest, saw "a wonderful sight. The cock eagle alighted, exhausted, at 

 the eyrie with a roe-deer calf held in one great foot ! The powerful 

 bird arrived from below, and was only just able to raise himself to 

 the nest with his large burden." A few days later there "were two 

 more roe calves and the skeleton of the first" in the nest. Aiken and 

 Warren (1914) write: 



The Golden Eagle is reported to be one of the worst enemies of the mountain 

 sheep, killing many of their lambs. A Mr. Waldron told Aiken that many years 

 ago when driving on the plains with several others he saw an eagle of this 



