of Maryland and Virginia by W. B. alone tends to minimize the record- 



Tyrell during the spring months of ing of fish which the eagles may 



1936 and 1937 are listed. These have eaten to the exclusion of ani- 



food-habit examinations were made mals clothed in fur or feathers, 



by C. F. Smith and Clarence A. ^^^y of the smaller fish bones are 



Sooter completely digested in the eagle's 



stomach and, without a binding ma- 



Table 4. — Food remains collected at nests terial, the bones of fishes eaten are 



of bald eagles in coastal regions of y^^^i ^^ i^^ scattered when regurgi- 



Maryland and Virginia, 1936 and 1937 i i i • fe fe 



tated and no definite pellet foraied. 



Accordingly, it is safe to assume 

 that the amount of fish eaten by the 

 Chesapeake Bay eagles was some- 

 what greater than that indicated. 

 These pellets were examined and 

 the material identified by A. L. Nel- 

 son and C. S. Williams. The num- 

 ber of occurrences of a food item 

 indicates the frequency with which 

 it was recorded in the material ex- 

 amined and the percent indicates 

 the proportion comprised by each 

 major group. 



Examination of 630 bald-eagle 

 pellets collected by the senior au- 

 thor near Stockton, Kans., during 

 the winters of 1935-41, revealed that 

 the birds were subsisting almost 

 entirely on rabbits. Their remains 

 were found in 619 (98.3 percent) of 

 the pellets and 607 of these con- 

 tained nothing else. Jackrabbits, 

 very largely if not entirely the 

 black- tailed form {Lepus calif orni- 

 Additional data on the food cws), comprised the bulk of the rab- 

 preferences of the bald eagle in the bits eaten. The remains of cotton- 

 Chesapeake Bay region are obtain- tails {Sylvilagus floridanm) were 

 able from pellets collected by F. R. found in 12 of the pellets. Rodents, 

 Smith on the Blackwater National constituting 1.6 percent of the re- 

 Wildlife Refuge in Maryland dur- mains, included prairie dogs {C^/- 

 ing the period March 1933 to March noinys ludovicianus) in 3 pellets, 

 1934. Table 5 presents this infor- fox squirrels {Sciurus niger) in 3, 

 mation in detail, but it is important a wood rat {Neotoma floridana) in 

 to point out that pellet material 1, and unidentified cricetids in 3. 



25 



