the magpie and crow to feed on the 

 remains of the traffic's wildlife 

 victims. 



On the Brevard National Wild- 

 life Refuge in Florida, bald eagles 

 have been observed feeding on the 

 waste and regurgitated fish in a 

 nesting colony of brown pelicans; 

 in Yellowstone National Park they 

 have been seen feeding on the car- 

 casses of elk in winter. With such 

 a diversity of items classified as car- 

 rion, it is no mean problem to inter 

 pret much of the partially digested 

 food found in the stomachs of bald 

 eagles, alternately aggressive pred- 

 ators or lowly carrion feeders. Sel- 

 dom when an eagle's stomach is 

 opened for examination can the re- 

 mains of a freshly killed creature 

 be distinguished from that of one 

 found dead by the eagle. Under 

 such conditions the evidence 

 brought from the field by the collec- 

 tor is indispensable — without it the 

 decision may be a surmise, at best. 



The bald eagle in the role of a 

 carrion feeder has repeatedly been 

 observed on the Bear Eiver Migra- 

 tory Bird Refuge in Utah. As win- 

 ter visitors, the eagles may be seen 

 feeding on dead ducks and carp 

 frozen in the ice on the shallow, 

 flooded flats. An unusual concen- 

 tration of fully a hundred eagles, 

 both bald and golden, joined by 

 )iumbers of California gulls, oc- 

 curred in January 1954, when the 

 birds collected to feed on the many 

 carp killed by pollution in Bear 

 River the previous fall. 



That the bald eagle, even in areas 

 that are nearly metropolitan in 

 character, commonly resorts to car- 

 rion as food is a matter of record. 



Along the lower reaches of the Hud- 

 son River immediately above New 

 York City, bald eagles may be 

 found floating downstream in win- 

 ter on cakes of ice and, in conjunc- 

 tion with gulls, feeding on dead fish 

 and other carrion. Not infre- 

 quently, they have been seen to take 

 advantage of a gathering of gulls 

 fighting for possession of a dead 

 fish. The tussle ends when the eagle 

 swoops in and removes the object of 

 the conflict. 



Despite the large numbers of 

 waterfowl available to them, bald 

 eagles wintering on the Cape 

 Romain National AVildlife Refuge 

 in South Carolina are largely car- 

 rion feeders. The refuge manager 

 reported that — 



on Bull's Island, eagles fed commonly 

 with vultures on carrion hogs. On a 

 liond that was turning from salt to brack- 

 ish, hundreds of impounded marine fish 

 died. Several hundred gulls, vultures, 

 crows, and a dozen eagles w-ere attracted 

 to the area by the sudden supply of food. 

 The eagles obtained the dead and dying 

 fish by wading in.to the shallow water and 

 pulling them ashore, or picking the 

 smaller ones off the water. 



Munro (1938) has pointed out 

 that local conditions and the time 

 of year greatly modify the carrion- 

 feeding habits of bald eagles in 

 British Columbia. Along the tidal 

 flats on Graham Island the bald 

 eagle was found to be as "predatory 

 as a turkey vulture" and timed its 

 feeding with periods of low tide 

 when drifting carrion became avail- 

 able. Here, he stated : 



Dogfish drifted ashore in considerable 

 numbers ; at one time I counted thirteen 

 on about a mile of beach and each of 

 these had been partially eaten by eagles 

 as could be told, in some instances, by the 



43 



