Vol i907 IV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Davenport Counties, Mont. 265' 



71. Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Bald Eagle. — Occasional visitor. For- 

 merly bred here. A pair of Bald Eagles were found nesting in a high pine 

 on the head of Horse Creek by Mr. Dan Bowman in 1893. Unfortunately 

 the female was killedj by a bullet as she sat on the edge of her nest, an 

 immense platform of sticks. Mr. Dan Bowman, who was one of the first 

 settlers in this part of Montana, has supplied the following further infor- 

 mation. In the early eighties Bald Eagles, while not common, were 

 frequently seen on the Powder River. In 1883, a pair had a nest in a 

 Cottonwood tree on the east side about two miles above the rocky ford 

 at the mouth of Coal Creek. Bowman, being camped nearly opposite, 

 could observe the birds, and once saw a lamb carried to the eaglets by 

 one of the parents. In 1885 he again saw an adult Bald Eagle perched on 

 a rock, about two miles north of this nesting site, and approached to 

 within fifty yards. A few days after one was shot by a Mexican, work- 

 ing for Frank Archdale, when Bowman identified it beyond a doubt 

 by the tail and shanks. He has also twice seen dead Bald Eagles on 

 the Powder River, which had died from eating poisoned bait put out for 

 wolves. Mr. J. H. Price has also seen Bald Eagles at different dates, 

 which were probably the same birds observed by Mr. Bowman who lives 

 in the same locality. I have twice seen an adult Bald Eagle on my ranch 

 in Dawson County, — March 17, and November 6, 1905. On the second 

 occasion I was riding up a thinly wooded hill, when the splendid bird 

 floated over me, unsuspectingly, just clearing the straggling pines. 



72. Falco mexicanus. Prairie Falcon. — Tolerably common resident. 

 For two summers, 1905-06, and probably for many years before I dis- 

 covered them, a pair of Prairie Falcons have nested half way up one of 

 the highest buttes in the picturesque badlands at the mouth of Cotton- 

 wood Creek in Dawson County. At this place there is a sheer wall of 

 peculiar white sandrock which breaks away very easily and disintegrates 

 into a substance as fine as chalk. The cliff contains several holes and the 

 falcon places her eggs upon the white powdery sand in the largest of these 

 under a flat projecting rock. The eggs may be seen either by ascending 

 from below with the aid of a rope and steps cut with a hatchet, or from 

 above by descending the butte and lying full length on the flat rock already 

 mentioned. The latter method, however, requires a cool head. In my 

 experience there are no birds so shy as these, and none whose nest is so 

 difficult to find, or who desert it so easily. In 1906, at this particular 

 eyrie, two eggs were laid by May 10, but the birds carefully avoided the 

 place if a human being was anywhere in the vicinity. When the nesting 

 site is approached, the falcons at first 'ring up,' uttering shrill chattering 

 cries, but should the intruder remain stationary, they endeavor to mislead 

 him as to its true position by circling above the top of another high butte, 

 both wailing like cats. Should the eyrie be actually visited, the birds 

 disappear altogether. For fear that the female might forsake her eggs 

 in the nest above referred to, the cavity containing them was merely looked 



