THE OOLOGIST 



43 



"EAGLE TRICKS" 



The Golden Eagle at one time was 

 plentiful in Young County, Texas. Mr. 

 G. E. Leberman of 2105 5th Ave., Ft. 

 Worth, Texas today related the fol- 

 lowing to me: 



"Well, those mounted Eagles you 

 have there remind me of days gone 

 by but not forgotten In 1885 we load- 

 ed up with lumber here at Ft. Wortli 

 and hauled it one hundred miles to 

 Young County, Texas, where we had 

 decided to settle down. 



While on this ranch we saw matiy in- 

 teresting birds atid animals, among 

 which was the Golden Eagle and his 

 tricks. 



One day we were herding cattle on 

 a hillside; we saw a big Eagle Hy 

 down into the grass and make attacks 

 on a three day old calf. He could not 

 pick him up, but the calf began to run 

 and bellow. The Eagle made three 

 drops upon him and soon had the calf 

 down, broken up in the hind quarters. 

 He was fixing to finish up on the calf 

 when we arrived and scared the Eagle 

 away. 



Their trick is always to attack an 

 animal that's too large to carry and 

 break them down in the back, then go 

 on and make a meal of it. 



Another time I found an Eagle's nest 

 in a tree that overhung a' high bluff 

 There were two feathered young in it. 

 We did not crawl out to the nest as 

 we thought the tree would give away 

 and we would land one hundred feet 

 below. But we did hide and watch 

 the old Eagle's actions. She flew up 

 and acted as if she was fighting the 

 young; finally she pulled one from the 

 nest and dropped it. As the young one 

 tumbled downward the mother Eagle 

 made a quick dash under the young 

 and let the young land on her back. 

 She flew back to the nest and tried 

 the other one out and on several at- 

 tempts she had the young flying. That 

 was her trick on teaching the young 



to fly." 



Mr. Leberman also said that while 

 1 uilding their house that rattlesnakes 

 were plentiful and many times they 

 would come into the house. One time 

 a big rattler seven feet long came into 

 the house and wrapped around the bed 

 post of the bed that I was sleeping in 

 and began to rattle. My brother said, 

 "Well, he's getting pretty close to 

 you." He lit the lantern and shot the 

 rattler and then rolled over in bed and 

 was soon fast asleep as if nothing had 

 happened. We also found a large 

 rattler wrapped around a post. There 

 was a big knot in the middle of him. 

 We killed the snake and cut him open 

 and found a full grown prairie dog in 

 him. 



Ramon Graham, Texas Notes, 1922. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



COMPARATIVE BIRDS OF NEST- 

 LING LIFE OF SOME NORTH AMER- 

 ICAN NIDICOLAE, by Frank L Burns. 

 This separate of twenty-six pages 

 from The Wilson Bulletin, of Dec. 

 1921, is but an evidence of the thor- 

 oughness with which our friend Burns 

 attacks any scientiflc subject. It is 

 brimful of information on a' subject 

 which is of itself full of interest and 

 concerning which too little is known 

 by the average ornithologist. 



Would that we had more contribu- 

 tions of this character ornithology lit- 

 erature, and less space wasted upon 

 attempts to describe imaginary sub- 

 species, and geographical races based 

 upon illusionary and fleeting tints, in 

 plumage or in a few feathers hidden 

 somewhere in the plumage of birds, 

 which later investigation proves to be 

 entirely hallucinatory; more particu- 

 larly to the pen of Frank L. Burns, 

 whom we know personally and whose 

 scientiflc writings a're a standard, and 

 authority upon the subjects on which 

 he treats, all of which is true. 



R. M. Barnes. 



