264 Cameron, The Golden Eagle in Montana. [luiy 



had just killed a full-grown jack- rabbit and begun a meal upon a 

 hind quarter after tearing out the entrails and placing them on 

 one side. Why did not the eagle carry away her prey as the 

 Knowlton birds did prairie dogs in the face of any disturbance? 

 As she had ample time to do so the obvious inference is that she 

 could not. On the other hand, when flying in a wind the same 

 eagle could lift a very considerable weight from the ground. Messrs. 

 Undem Bros, informed me that while in full flight she lifted a 

 lamb, probably weighing between 10 and 12 lbs., for some distance 

 into the air before its weight compelled her to drop it. It was 

 this bird which afterwards met her doom through her indiscreet 

 attack upon the collie, and, according to the shepherd, never 

 ceased flying even with the dog in her clutches.^ Doubtless, adult 

 jack-rabbits carried to the eyrie are picked up by the eagles without 

 alighting or much relaxing speed. Nevertheless, only once within 

 my knowledge was a full-grown jack-rabbit taken to an eyrie, and, 

 although the eagles undoubtedly killed numbers of the adult ani- 

 mals, their usual practice was to tear and dismember them on the 

 spot. I have three times surprised an eagle on a full-grown jack- 

 rabbit, and twice saw it actually strike the victim, but the bird made 

 no attempt to carry off its booty on either occasion. The average 

 weight of an adult jack-rabbit is 7 lbs. (the heaviest weighed by 

 me was 8J lbs.), and from the above facts I infer that the eagles 

 here are reluctant to make the required effort for transporting 

 full-grown jack-rabbits to their eyrie. It may be interesting to 

 state that on the two occasions above mentioned both jack-rabbits 

 were crouching in their sage brush forms, and neither made any 

 move when the eagle was hovering above. The eagle appeared to 

 drop on the paralyzed victim much as a Kestrel does onto a mouse. 

 As both my wife and Mr. M. M. Archdale have seen an eagle 

 stoop at and miss a running jack-rabbit on two separate occasions, 

 I presume that if the quarry ran swiftly away it would possess a 

 chance of saving its life. 



There is, in fact, an entire absence of any trustworthy evidence 

 by competent observers that Golden Eagles actually lift and carry 

 away animals larger or heavier than hares or game birds. Differ- 



1 Auk, Vol. XXIV, p. 264. 



