that the eagles have eggs or young 

 to defend. Herrick (1932) rehited 

 how a pair flew menacingly at a 

 group of persons examining the re- 

 mains of an eagle's nest that had 

 just been blown down by high 

 winds. And then there are those 

 occasions when the mere presence of 

 an eagle causes people to surmise 

 what might have happened had 

 someone not intervened. Such a 

 situation was the basis of a tale 

 emanating from Connecticut early 

 in this century. On that occasion, 

 a bald eagle perched on an arbor 8 

 feet above a 2-year-old child led to 

 the suspicion that an attack was im- 

 minent, yet nothing happened. 

 Alexander Wilson et al. (1832), 

 pioneer American ornithologist, re- 

 corded an incident in which a bald 

 eagle struck a small child and tore 

 its clothing. Thomas Nuttall 

 (1832), Wilson's contemporary, 

 tells an even more startling tale of 

 an infant carried to the eagle's eyrie 

 several miles distant. Realizing the 

 definite limitations on the weight 

 that can be carried by an eagle, one 

 is inclined to discount severely the 

 accuracy of such anecdotes. One 

 of the more fantastic of these stories 

 gained wide circulation in the late 

 1920's and concerned a bald eagle in 

 Kentucky that was alleged to have 

 attacked an 8-year-old boy, carried 

 him aloft 75 feet, and transported 

 him 200 feet. 



It is not unreasonable to assume 

 that the lifting power of the bald 

 eagle is not greatly ditferent from 

 that of the golden eagle, since the 

 two birds are essentially the same 

 in body weight and wing spread. 

 Accordingly, the results obtained by 



Walker and Walker (1940) in tests 

 with a captive golden eagle trained 

 in falconry are worth reciting. 

 AVlien a 1-pound weight w^as at- 

 tached to each foot, the bird aver- 

 aged 165 yards in normal, ell'ortless 

 flight before alighting. With the 

 weight doubled, it flew 64 and 58 

 yards in two trials during which 

 flight was labored. When the 

 weights were increased to 4 pounds 

 on each foot, the distances were cut 

 down to 10 and 14 yards in two 

 tests even though the bird was lib- 

 erated from the roof of a small 

 building. Arnold (1954, p. 3) has 

 presented additional information 

 on the weight-lifting ability of the 

 golden eagle. 



The weight-lifting limitation of 

 the bald eagle was demonstrated by 

 N. R. Casillo (1937), who anchored 

 a 4-pound pickerel to a large rock 

 with the dead fish floating on the 

 surface of the water. A female 

 bald eagle grasped the fish but was 

 unable to lift it and the rock from 

 the water. Even though the sub- 

 merged rock weighed something 

 less than 10 pounds, the bird suc- 

 ceeded in dragging it only about 20 

 feet along the bottom. 



In view of the bald eagle's limited 

 capacity to lift burdens, one need 

 not be seriously concerned over the 

 tales that have appeared in the 

 public press regarding the eagle's 

 aggressive predation on human be- 

 ings. This appears to be sound 

 reasoning regardless of the fact 

 that such factors as favorable air 

 currents, gliding flights, and wind 

 velocity may at times greatly in- 

 crease the ability of an eagle to lift 

 and carry a burden. 



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