^°1908^^1 Cameron, The Golden Eagle in Montana. 253 



appeared about the same time as the badland eaglets. On April 

 1 the female was sitting on two eggs, and on May 2 the young 

 were hatched out. For birds of their wild shy nature these eagles 

 are wonderfully tame. On April 13, I rode imder the branch of 

 a pine in which the male eagle sat, and examined him within a 

 few yards. The bird, which had just begun to moult, remained 

 on his perch preening himself during the whole time that I was 

 there and was still thus engaged when I rode away. The female 

 is more nervous, but, if driven from her eggs, will immediately 

 return to the tree and afterwards settle do\\Ti on the nest. It is 

 fortunate for the birds that their chosen nesting site is on private 

 property where the owner and all his men take a deep interest 

 in their welfare. 



]\Iuch has been written in regard to the larder of the eagle during 

 the breeding season, and I have read with great interest and in- 

 struction the pamphlet on North American Eagles * by Mr. H. C. 

 Oberholser, who gives the following estimate of the probable num- 

 ber of Sharp-tailed Grouse destroyed by Golden Eagles in this 

 State. He writes: "Allowing a pair of eagles to every 100 square 

 miles in Montana, which is probably conservative, there would be 

 1,450 pairs in the State, and should each one of these pairs kill 

 only one grouse per day for the three months during which eaglets 

 remained in the nest, 130,500 grouse would be destroyed in Montana 

 during this period alone, while it is not to be supposed that at other 

 times the eagles refrain entirely from a diet of game birds. Further- 

 more, since at this time the grouse themselves have young or eggs, 

 the death of the ])arent birds means usually the loss of the brood, 

 and this would amount at the lowest calculation to double the 

 number of adults (probably much more) or 261,000 young. Adding 

 to this the adults there results a total of 397,500, a number that is 

 astonishingly large, yet doubtless well within the truth. The 

 destruction of young is of course not as detrimental as that of an 

 equal number of adults, for the young have less chance in the 

 struggle for existence and in the above calculation ample allowance 

 has been made accordingly." 



The above is a startling indictment against the royal bird, but 



1 The North American Eagles and Their Economic Relations. U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 27, pp. 27-28. 



