THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 413 
a stout birchen staff I worked my way over toa secure footing within a dozen 
feet of the nest. The remaining distance was a nasty bit of climbing, and 1 
preferred to await the first onslaught of the outraged parents where there 
would be some chance for defense. Fudge! ‘The fire-eating birds appeared 
once or twice in the middle distance, but paid no more attention to the peril of 
their offspring than as if | had been a Magpie, coveting the crumbs from the 
royal table. 
Three weeks later I revisited the nest and put the eaglets to flight. One 
of the old birds came up and superintended the gliding downfall of the least 
capable child, but seeing her safely upon the ground immediately went away 
marmot-hunting in perfect unconcern. If there is one bird above another of a 
gentle and unsuspecting nature, I judge the Golden Eagle to be that bird. But 
doubtless this also is a hasty generalization. 
On the cliffs of Kocene formation near Fossil, Wyoming, I once located a 
Golden Eagle’s nest. The material of which these hills are composed is a kind 
of volcanic ash, very friable, and the birds had chosen for their eyrie a cranny 
in the very middle of one of the wildest of these fossil-bearing cliffs and at a 
height of some seventy feet. It was practically inaccessible even by rope, for 
the cliff is perpendicular and deeply fissured by the action of the weather, so that 
the flying buttresses thus formed are ready to part and crumble at a breath. A 
pair of Prairie Falcons (quite similar to our Peregrines) had a nest in the 
“next block” and they appeared to make a practice of persecuting the Eagles 
just for sport. I saw one of the Eagles launch out from his nest for a course 
across the broad valley. A Falcon took after him, altho the Eagle had a big 
lead. “A race”, thought I. Woot, woof, woof, went the Eagle’s wings; clip, 
clip, clip, clip, went the Falcon’s. Inside of a mile the smaller bird made up 
the distance, scratched His Majesty’s crown with his noble toes, and was up 
in the ether a hundred yards before the Eagle could do a thing. This pro- 
cess was repeated until the gentle pair passed from sight, but a few minutes 
later the Falcon returned to his perch chuckling hugely. 
In Ohio the Golden Eagle is surmised to be only a winter visitor. As such 
it is not infrequently seen in various parts of the state and is occasionally cap- 
tured in traps or shot while inspecting some poultry yard or pig-pen. ‘The in- 
juries inflicted by the birds are usually trifling, but might become serious if 
they were at all numerous. 
Professor Jones, in his recent catalog, notes four records for Lorain 
County within the last five years, and, on the authority of Mr. Harry B. Mc- 
Connell, three captured near Cadiz within the past three years. An apparent 
exception to the ranks of winter visitors was one seen by myself on the Lake 
Erie shore near Lorain on the 29th of August, 1898. The appearance is no 
evidence of a near breeding range, however, since these birds wander far in 
search of food, and especially after the young are able to shift for themselves. 
