corded by Brown and Couey (1950) . 

 The observer, Stewart Brandborg, 

 in the Sun River country witnessed 

 a bald eagle fly past cliffs on which 

 two nannies, two kids, and a year- 

 ling were feeding. As related : 



One of the nannies, that was feeding 

 in a narrow ravine, was seen to crowd 

 close to the side of her kid as the bird 

 circled about 25 feet above her. The 

 eagle then swooped within a few feet 

 of these two goats and landed on a pin- 

 nacle of rock ten feet above where they 

 stood. The nanny started toward the 

 eagle and was within five feet of the 

 bird, when it jumped from where it had 

 been perched, glided low to pick up the 

 kid, and sail out over the face of the 

 cliff. The kid hung helplessly from the 

 talons of the bird as it sailed to a point 

 where it began to lose elevation, and 

 finally landed a third of a mile away 

 and just out of sight of the observers. 

 The mother goat was seen to spend sev- 

 eral minutes searching up and down the 

 slope near the point where she had left 

 the kid. * * * The kid * * * could not 

 have weighed more than six or seven 

 pounds and was probably not more than 

 a few days old. The eagle soared with- 

 out moving its wings during the entire 

 flight with the kid. 



Antelope.— Although the golden 

 eagle is more common than the bald 

 eagle in antelope country, the latter 

 may at times attack the fleet-footed 

 ruminant. R. L. Clennon of Buf- 

 falo, S. Dak., describes (in corre- 

 spondence) such an incident in the 

 following words : 



On November 8, 1938, while running 

 some coyote traps * * * in Harding- 

 County south of the State Antelope Pre- 

 serve, I noticed an eagle wheel over the 

 edge of a small rocky butte as if pursuing 

 some animal. * * * Upon looking over 

 the butte I saw three American or bald 

 eagles. One was an old bird, the other 

 two were young. The birds were circling 

 over and diving at a young (three-fourths 



grown) antelope. * * * The eagles kept 

 diving and striking with breast and tal- 

 ons until the antelope went down and 

 then they started to tear away the flesh. 

 * * * When I walked to the antelope it 

 was dead. 



SMALL MAMMALS 



Rabbits and rodents. — Both stom- 

 ach examinations and field observa- 

 tion disclose the fact that the bald 

 eagle, normally, is not as persistent 

 an enemy of rabbits and rodents as 

 is the golden eagle. Yet, it would 

 appear that when these animals are 

 available the bald eagle adapts it- 

 self to such a diet. 



Among the 435 Alaskan bald- 

 eagle stomachs examined, small 

 mammals were recorded only twice, 

 a meadow mouse in one and a shrew 

 in another. Rabbits or small ro- 

 dents also were detected in 5 of the 

 31 stomachs collected in the United 

 States, largely in earlier years. 



Understanding of field condi- 

 tions is essential for the proper in- 

 terpretation of the amount and 

 nature of the mammal food eaten. 

 As Murie (1940) has pointed out: 



Small rodents are not available on most 

 of the [Aleutian] islands. Ground squir- 

 rels have been introduced on Kavalga 

 Island for fox food, and the eagles ap- 

 parently take full advantage of that sup- 

 ply. These rodents are not available on 

 the other islands where nests were ex- 

 amined, except on Unimak Island. 

 House rats are common on Rat Island. 

 Probably on only three other islands 

 could these be found by eagles. 



It is evident that of all the mam- 

 mals eaten, including the blue fox 

 and domesticated sheep of which 

 there was a herd on Unimak Island, 

 the Aleutian ground squirrel was 

 the most frequent victim. The sin- 



37 



