358 The Golden Eagle 
incessantly on the look out for food and their persistent harrying 
of these districts may possibly not leave sufficient game to make 
it worth while for the Golden Eagles to establish hunting quarters 
in the same region. Rabbits and Partridges are Golden Eagles’ 
favourite food and in the sierra the only serious competitors they 
meet with for this class of prey is the smaller Bonelli’s Eagle and, 
to a less extent, Eagle Owls, who also dearly love a rabbit. 
The Golden Eagles are very partial to young kids and very 
small lambs and at the period of the year when these are about the 
herdsmen keep a sharp eye on the movements of the Eagles. 
When, as occasionally happens, a nest is on an open ledge visible 
from the top of a cliff, the goat-herds not seldom drop pieces of 
rock into them so as to smash the eges and drive the Eagles to 
gs 
some other locality. In this case the Eagles do not entirely leave 
the district but resort to another site not far off. 
This brings me to a very interesting trait in the habits of the 
Golden Eagle, well known to most field naturalists, found in many 
other Eagles and raptorial birds, but in none so marked as in Golden 
Eagles. 
Every pair of Eagles, whose habits | have had an opportunity 
of watching over a period of a few years, would seem to have 
usually at least two alternative sites for their nests, some have 
three and I know of one with four sites. In fact I only know of 
one pair out of many, which habitually resort to one place and one 
only. The reason for this is however apparent for owing to its 
situation it has never been disturbed. This nest is in a small 
cavern on the face of an absolute wall of limestone rock some 800 
ft. high, at about 400 feet from the summit. Above the cliff is a 
talus of loose stone at an angle of 45° or so, above which again rise 
other precipices. To reach the nearest point above this nest would 
be a long day’s work and to lower a man to the nest would 
require at least 500 ft. of 2-inch rope and an equal amount of 
lighter stuff would be most desirable as a life-line. 
