18 Bird-Nesting 



tions ; the birds were very wary and kept out of range of his 

 gun. I have a set of two eggs of the bald eagle that were 

 collected on March 18th, 1884, they were taken from a large 

 nest built in a pine tree 60 feet high, on the southern shore of 

 Lake Winnipeg. A set of two eggs were taken from this same 

 nest the year previously ; this shows that the bald eagle is an 

 early breeder even as far north as Winnipeg. In Florida the 

 bald eagle is a very early breeder. I have two clutches of eggs 

 that were collected on January 19th, 1883. The golden eagle 

 does not commence nidification so early as the bald eagle, and 

 seldom lays its eggs before April, except in California where the 

 eggs are sometimes taken in March. I have a clutch of two 

 eggs that were collected in Santa Clara county, California, on 

 March 17th, 1890, and another clutch taken in the same dis- 

 trict on March 22nd, 1890; a third set was taken in California 

 on April 16th, 1889. The golden eagle breeds in the moun- 

 tainous portions of Canada and the United States, usually se- 

 lecting for its eyrie some inacessible cliff, but, strange to say, 

 in California the golden eagle seems to prefer to make its nest 

 in oak trees. The above mentioned three clutches were all 

 taken from oak trees ; the nests were large structures of sticks, 

 leaves lined with grass-, leaves and straw, and were built near 

 the tree tops, from thirty to seventy feet from the ground. 



In Canada, Europe and Asia Minor, the golden eagle invar- 

 ibly makes its nest in a cliff. This species frequents boreal re- 

 gions, and is know T n to breed amongst the mountains of Que- 

 bec and near Port Arthur and Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, 

 and also in the rocky mountains of British Columbia. 



The eggs of the golden eagle are larger than those of the 

 bald species. I have in my collection a series of thirty eggs, 

 out of this number only one is white like a bald eagle's egg. 

 Three of the largest specimens measure 3.19x2.39, 3.12x2.38, 

 3.10x2.38, and three of the smallest measure 2.78x2.10,2.78x2.06, 

 2.75x2.12. The eggs of the golden eagle as a rule are not richly 

 spotted or blotched like those of the red shouldered and other 

 hawks ; the general appearance is whitish, or creamy, freckled, 

 spotted or mottled with grey and various shades of brown. 



