38 



THE OOLOGIST 



proved unsuccessful I tried again a 

 month later and was very well pleased 

 to find a fine set of two eggs in the 

 new nest of the lower pair number 3. 

 The nest was finely lined with the 

 usual ingredients. The number 2 nest 

 below it had not been touched at all. 



In 1907 the birds rebuilt the upper 

 nest of the two, making a beautiful 

 nest out of it for so large an affair, 

 well built up and lined to an unusual 

 degree and there were two well mark- 

 ed and very large eggs for me. 



On July fourth of that year I took 

 a friend down the canyon to show him 

 the nest, and on going up was surpris- 

 ed to find in it some pieces of broken 

 egg shell, unquestionably Eagles, very 

 clean and bright and the markings 

 showing clearly. This might have 

 been a third egg of the set taken ear- 

 lier, possibly a second set of one. If 

 so, it was the first time I ever knew 

 any of my Eagles to occupy the same 

 nest a second time in a season. 



In 1908 the birds had fixed up the 

 1907 nest quite a little and that was 

 all. Perhaps my early visit had scared 

 them away for nothing was done fur- 

 ther to either that nest or the one be- 

 low\ They had evidently gone else- 

 where but I had no time then to hunt 

 them up. On June 16th Mr. C. F. 

 Schnack and I went down the canyon 

 to see if we could locate another nest 

 about a mile away in a place where he 

 had heard some young Eagles had 

 been taken about 1896. We found two 

 nests in a big rock pile jutting out 

 near the top of the ridges; one on an 

 open and quite exposed shelf, being 

 only slightly overhung by the bould- 

 ers behind and the other on the top 

 ot an overhanging boulder at the en- 

 trance to a sort of cave formed by 

 the upheavel of these rock masses in 

 the far distant past. This was quite 

 near the bottom but very difficult to 

 get at without artificial aid on account 



of bulging out of the boulder upon 

 which the nest was placed. It was. 

 very well overhung and protected by 

 the rocks above. To our very great 

 surprise this nest contained two eggs, 

 evidently deserted and the smallest 

 in size of any yet taken from these 



birds. 



In 1909 the lower nest of the first 

 pair (No. 2) was almost wholly re- 

 built after its long disuse, but there 

 were no eggs in it, and no nests of 

 the birds then known to us were oc- 

 cupied that season. 



In 1910 although the upper nest of 

 the lower pair (No. 3) was all fixed 

 up and ready for eggs on my first 

 visit, neither it nor any of the nests 

 proved to be satisfactory to the birds, 

 who rebuilt an old nest, hitherto un- 

 known to us, located about 20 feet 

 from the ground, in a small oak near 

 the top of the ridge, about midway be- 

 tween my two pairs of nests. This 

 evidently had been a very old nest and 

 probably had not been very much oc- 

 cupied, for the foundation sticks were 

 w^ell rotted out and, except for the re- 

 built super-structure, was rather frail 

 and shaky. This was found by Mr. J. 

 B. Dixon who got a fine set of 3 from 

 it, all very large. This is nest No. 6. 



In 1911 the nest No. 3 was agaia 

 prepared, but the birds went back to 

 No. 6 where Mr. Dixon got another 

 set of two. The nature of the country 

 is very well shown in the photograph 

 of this nest which appear in The Oolo- 

 gist of August 15th, 1911, in which a 

 paper by Mr. Dixon on these Eagles 

 appears. 



The hill is very steep and rises 

 about SOO feet from the bottom of the 

 canyon, and is covered with very high 

 brush, in places almost too dense and 

 thick for anything but a coyote or 

 jackrabbit to penetrate. The outlook 

 from this nest is very fine. 



Last season, 1912, although my No. 



