258 Cameron, The Golden Eagle in Montana. [juiv 



and limber when found, as it had only been quite recently killed. 

 The eagles had torn a large hole in its back with their terrible 

 talons, and were feeding on the kidneys and entrails. Mr. Ander- 

 son at once investigated the scene of the struggle and could easily 

 read the gruesome details on the deep, crusted snow. The eagles 

 had obviously stampeded a bunch of antelope, and then cut out a 

 victim by a combined attack. Leaving the herd, the latter en- 

 deavored to escape down a small right hand draw, but after cover- 

 ing about a hundred yards was beaten back by the eagles. It 

 then crossed a ridge on which the main antelope trail ran at right 

 angles to its own and, hard pressed by its assailants, struggled 

 down a narrow left hand draw to the place where it succumbed. 

 Altogether the antelope could barely have covered three hundred 

 yards after the first attack by the eagles. The victim, which had 

 evidently offered a gallant resistance, seems to have made a stand 

 in three places, chiefly where found, but also at points along the 

 trail. The crimson stained snow and thickly strewn hair, added 

 to the well defined wing prints of the flapping and dragging eagles, 

 sufficiently revealed this prairie tragedy. One or more of the birds 

 must have clung tenaciously to their quarry's back and from the 

 deep wounds thus inflicted "the blood had spurted out as when a 

 cow's horns are sawn off." 



R. R. Brown (the wolfer at Knowlton) informs me that he has 

 often found coyotes in his traps which were partially devoured by 

 eagles. Presumably the coyotes were much debilitated before the 

 eagles attacked them. It is erroneous to suppose that the eagle 

 is "not affected by poisoned bait." Every Montana wolfer has 

 killed eagles in winter with strychnine put out for wolves, and I 

 have myself seen dead birds which had perished from this cause. 

 To quote the late Mr. Howard Saunders, "poison has been a very 

 important cause of the approaching extinction of the Golden 

 Eagle in Ireland." ^ On April 22, the two brothers Archdale 

 saw the male eagle attempt to secure a victim from a north-bound 

 flock of Canada Geese. At sight of the great black bird, which 

 rapidly overtook them, the panic-stricken geese scattered in wild 

 confusion from their usual V-shaped formation, and each member 



1 Ibis, Vol. V, 1905. p. 481. 



