THE OOLOGIST 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE IN COCHISE 

 COUNTY, ARIZONA. 



by F. C. Willard, Tombstone, Ariz. 

 , For some years after taking up my 

 residence in Arizona I made an un- 

 successful series of efforts to locate 

 nests of the Golden Eagle (aguila 

 chrysaetos). Previous to the year 

 1910, I had located but two. One was 

 a deserted nest in Ramsay canon of 

 the Huachuca Mountains, and the 

 other was on an inaccessible cliff in 

 Carr canon of the same mountains. 



In March, 1910, I was first success- 

 ful in locating an occupied nest and 

 on the 6th of that month secured my 

 first set of eggs, two in number. This 

 nest was in a niche in an overhang- 

 ing cliff in the Dragoon mountains 

 and was an immense affair, six feet 

 one way by eight the other. Dried 

 'cactus' leaves comprised most of it 

 but there were some sticks in the 

 base, the most of these were well 

 rotted showing that the nest must 

 have been a very old one. The eggs 

 were sparingly spotted and unusually 

 large. The bird sat very close and 

 would not flush until almost hit with 

 a rock. As I was working alone the 

 overhang of the rocks made securing 

 the eggs a matter of some difficulty. 

 The cliff was about 200 feet high and 

 the nest was 75 ft. down from the top. 

 I studied this nest for some time from 

 an opposite cliff trying to be sure that 

 there was a bird on it. The dark 

 blotch in the midst of the sticks 

 might be a shadow or a log for all I 

 could tell even with the aid of a pair 

 of binoculars. As I gazed thru the 

 the glasses steadily, trying to make 

 out the form of a bird, I noticed the 

 head begin to turn very, very slowly 

 toward me until the bill pointed 

 straight in my direction. After look- 

 ing at me for a minute or two the 

 head was turned back into its original 

 position parallel with the face of the 



cliff. I was the happy collector then 

 and made short work of getting around 

 the head of the canon and above the 

 nest and then secured the eggs as 

 above related. 



March 26th of the same year I se- 

 cured another set close to the city of 

 Tombstone. The nest was on a ridic- 

 ulously low cliff and only 15 ft. down 

 from the top. The eggs were easily 

 secured. On account of the narrow- 

 ness of the ledge the nest was small. 

 Most of the sticks seemed to have 

 fallen to the ground at the base of 

 the cliff 35 ft. below. The eggs were 

 fresh. The bird left the nest as soon 

 as I appeared at the top of the cliff 

 and returned but once during the time 

 spent in trying to take some pictures 

 and in taking the eggs. 



The successes of this season seemed 

 to break the ice and I have taken 

 one or two sets each year since then. 

 I had supposed that the eagle was a 

 rare bird in this section as I seldom 

 sav,^ one but I have now located eight 

 pairs within a radius of twenty miles 

 from Tombstone. They seem to pre- 

 fer rather barren mountains and nest 

 on cliffs near the extreme top of the 

 ridges. These cliffs are rarely over 

 150 ft. high but face very steep talus 

 slopes which try wind and muscle 

 greatly in making the ascent. 



At nearly every nest there is one 

 special rock that is used as a perch 

 and its white-washed side can be seen 

 for miles. One such rock in the Dra- 

 goons is visible from my window 

 without the aid of a glass tho its 

 airline distance is over ten miles. 



As previously remarked, the eagle, 

 when flushed, flies straight away and 

 rarely returns while the collector is 

 around. I have never had an old 

 eagle make any threatening move to- 

 ward me even when the nest con- 

 tained small young. 



On one occasion I was interested in 



