Reputed ‘“ Mild-mannered” Bulls 203 
-had artistically “flicked” the gun from its position with his 
horn. Fortunately he was too much occupied to pay any attention 
to me. My shooting companions, who had been lunching in a 
place of safety 100 yards from the tree and who had a_ full 
view of the exhibition I had so unexpectedly provided for them 
now joined me and were naturally much amused which was, con- 
sidering the condition of my gun and myself, more than I was. 
Early in February 1878 I saw this same pair of White- 
shouldered Eagles building a big nest in another small alder tree 
in the great marsh not far from the first nest I described. From 
this three most splendidly marked eggs were taken, of which one 
was unluckily broken. As a general rule the eggs of this species 
are usually white with a few faint rufous marks. But on no less 
than three occasions | have obtained beautifully marked eggs, 
richly clouded with purple and spotted and blotched with rufous 
brown. In size they are as a rule, decidedly smaller than 
those of the Golden Eagle, the largest I have ever taken, 
measuring 2°9 in. by 2.3 in. All the same some Golden Eagles’ 
eggs are smaller than some of the larger eggs of the White- 
shouldered Eagle. 
Upon showing my coloured sets of White-shouldered Eagles’ 
eggs to the late Mr. Henry Seebohm, so convinced was he from 
their size and markings that they must belong to the Golden Eagle 
that he urged me over and over again to re-mark them as such. 
Since, as this account shows, I was well acquainted both with the 
Eagles which laid the eggs and with all the circumstances of their 
nesting, I naturally enough steadfastly refused to do this. It is 
a good example of the perils which beset any attempt to identify 
eggs by their markings and size and has made me ever since 
view all collections which have been rearranged by so-called experts 
with suspicion. 
In 1879 these Eagles nested in the big tree of 1877, whence | 
