90 GOLDEN-TAILED AND WHITETAILED EAGLE 



He did not, however, feed them. This, as in the case of the Scottish 

 birds, was done by the female. As in the case of the birds watched 

 by Mr. Macpherson hares and birds were plucked, but while 

 mammals and snakes were always decapitated before they were 

 brought to the nest, birds were only occasionally so treated. But 

 Mr. Cameron apparently saw no playing on the part of the eaglets, 

 nor did he witness their first attempts at feeding themselves, at 

 walking, or flight. 



Mr. Macpherson and Mr. Cameron have placed all bird-lovers 

 under a great obligation by their vivid and exhaustive studies of this 

 most interesting bird. They have done much to correct our notions 

 of the habits of the golden-eagle. They have shown, for example, 

 that Seebohm was far from the truth when he gravely assured us that 

 it is more a vulture than eagle, feeding greedily on carrion, and that 

 it will not scruple to convey dead rabbits to its young. This is 

 certainly not borne out by Mr. Macpherson, nor even by Seebohm 

 himself, for he begins his article on this bird with a comment on the 

 havoc wrought by it on sheep-farms. In like manner he describes it 

 as "the proud king of birds," and on the next page that his motions 

 are "sluggish, cowardly, and tame. . . ." That the golden-eagle, 

 when pressed by hunger, will eat carrion there is little doubt, but 

 shipwrecked sailors have been known to eat then their fellows. 

 This does not, however, justify the assertion that the people of their 

 race are cannibals. 



On occasion, it would seem, the golden-eagle will hunt in concert 

 for game, one gliding over the ground and beating the bushes and 

 shrubs with its wings, while the other keeps on the look-out, at a 

 slight elevation, for chance rabbits or hares which may be driven out. 

 Large animals are seized by the head with one foot and the haunch 

 with the other ; smaller victims are seized by the head only. Birds 

 are seized when crouching and not on the wing, the eagle lacking the 

 speed in turning and checking flight necessary for the capture of 

 birds on the wing. 



