Vol. XXII-j Cameron, Nesting of the Golden Eagle. 1 63 



Both eaglets were caught and could be picked up with bare 

 hands, but, while handled a good deal for the purpose of photog- 

 raphy, they never acted on the aggressive, as might have been 

 expected. I had previously found fledglings of Buteo borealis 

 and B. swainsoni equally submissive, and it may be safely 

 assumed that young eagles and buzzards may be handled with 

 impunity for a time after they have flown. 



As the female eaglet was too lively a subject for the camera, 

 the male was photographed on my wife's arm, around which a 

 sack had been wrapped to protect it from the talons. The bird's 

 crop, however, was so enormously distended with grouse that a 

 near view would have been most inartistic. At this time the 

 eaglets appeared to be fed entirely upon Sharp tailed Grouse 

 which were still plucked for them by the parents. No other 

 remains were seen. I should much like to have witnessed the 

 eagles in pursuit of the grouse, but they hunted at such a long 

 distance from home that I had little opportunity of seeing this 

 particular pair take any quarry. My wife saw one of them stoop 

 at, and miss, a jack-rabbit, which was loping along only about 

 1,00 yards distant, on which occasion the intended victim sought 

 refuge in a prairie dog hole. Whereupon the eagle took up its 

 station at the hole waiting for the hare to come out. It may be 

 interesting here to relate a parallel incident in Scotland. 



Within the last few years, the Golden Eagle has reestablished 

 itself in the heart of the deer forest on the Island of Jura, Inner 

 Hebrides, where there are no white hares, and observation has 

 shown that at least one resident pair of eagles feed largely on 

 grouse. My brother has frequently described an eagle 'hawking' 

 grouse just as a Peregrine will do. On one occasion the royal 

 bird, in full chase of a grouse, passed within a few feet of my 

 brother's head, and on another occasion the eagle was surprised 

 sitting on a stone in the heather at about 30 yards distance, when 

 it flew unwillingly away. 



Shortly afterwards my brother almost trod upon a cock grouse, 

 lying like a stone in deep heather close to where the eagle had 

 been waiting, and came to the conclusion that the eagle, having 

 hunted the grouse into this thick covert, was waiting, like a cat at 

 a mouse hole, for the quarry to reappear. Owing to the panic 



