XXVIII 



GOLDEN EAGLE; BLACK EAGLE 

 349. Aquila chrysoetos (Linn.) 



This rapacious and tyrannical great Sampson of the 

 bird kingdom, with one exception, the Condor, is un- 

 doubtedly the strongest and most robust of all diurnal 

 birds of prey ; it is of a beautiful dark brown color, with 

 feathers extending to its toes. It is slow in reaching 

 breeding maturity but lives many years some say one 

 hundred years. Although from choice it lives in the 

 mountains and far northern countries, it is often forced 

 by food conditions to tarry or migrate and nest in densely 

 wooded districts far from the place of its choice. (Fig. 

 39.) 



The eyry of the Eagle is a huge affair of coarse 

 sticks and twigs, lined with leaves, moss and feathers, 

 and is used year after year, being repaired and added 

 to each season. 



The eggs, usually two, are drab colored, splashed 

 with sienna or umber. What a shark is to the fishes of 

 the sea, what a tiger is to the mammals of the jungle, 

 this Eagle is to all birds of the air and small mammals 

 of the earth. It is the king of the air, the monarch of 

 its nesting zone. Small mammals or birds that invade 

 the territory of the Golden Eagle do so at the risk of 

 their lives. (Fig. 40.) 



From a mere speck in the sky this bird, three feet 

 long with seven or more feet of wing-spread, by its gift 

 of powerful eyesight, can detect the smallest bird, mouse 

 or rabbit and swoop upon it with a speed and accuracy 

 almost unbelievable. 



While on big game hunting trips on the upper 

 reaches of the Frazier River in British Columbia, I 

 repeatedly saw these great birds and heard them scream- 

 ing as they circled high in the sky when I approached 

 their eyries on some, to me, inaccessible mountain crag. 

 Golden Eagles do not take kindly to captivity; they 



102 



