190 MEMOIRS OF THE M'TTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



87. Aquila chrysaetos (Linn.). 

 Golden Eagle. 



Very rare visitor. 



A young Golden Eagle in the New England collection of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History was taken at Lexington many years ago (I can find no record 

 of the precise date) and presented to the Society by Dr. Samuel Kneeland. 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway refer to this specimen ^ as "a young male " hav- 

 ing "the tail plain black, the extreme base and tip white." They also mention 

 another bird which "was secured alive in Brighton, near Boston, in 1837, by 

 being taken in a trap which had been set for another purpose." ^ There are 

 a few other records for localities not far distant from the Cambridge Region — 

 as Lynn, Lynnfield, Salem and Weymouth. To the more eastern portions of 

 Massachusetts, however, the Golden Eagle has been ever — at least within 

 historic times — a decidedly rare visitor, usually occurring in winter or late 

 autumn. 



88. Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linn.). 

 Bald Eagle. 



Of irregular and infrequent occurrence at all seasons. 



Ever since I can remember, the sight of a Bald Eagle, soaring in majestic 

 circles high in air over our woods and fields or perched on the branch of a tree 

 overlooking one of our fresh-water ponds, has been sufficiently unusual to con- 

 stitute a really noteworthy experience. I have seen the stately bird oftenest in 

 March or April and at or near Fresh Pond. My notes also record its appearance 

 at various other times and places, sometimes during the months of January and 

 February and occasionally directly over central parts of our city, or even over 

 those of Boston. Its visits to the Cambridge Region are evidently becoming 



1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, History of North American Birds, III. 1874, 315. 

 '^Ibid., 316. 



