98 THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The Golden Eagle is a very rare winter visitant within our 

 limits. At Liverpool, Indiana, I saw a bird which I thought was 

 Aquila chrysactos though it may have been a bald eagle .in im- 

 mature plumage. Mr. Robert Kennicott records it as rare 

 in his list of Cook County birds.* Mr. E. W. Nelson gives an 

 interesting note regarding the Golden Eagle :f "Not very un- 

 common during winter. Arrives in November and departs early 

 in spring. Formerly nested throughout the state. In December, 

 1874, while hunting Prairie Chickens in a field a few miles south 

 of Chicago, my friend, Mr. T. Morris, was suddenly attacked 

 with great fury by a pair of these birds, they darting so close 

 that had he been prepared he could easily have touched the first 

 one with his gun. As it arose to renew the attack he fired a small 

 charge of number six shot, and brought it down, dead. The 

 second then darted at him, and so rapidly that he did not fire 

 until it had turned and was soaring up, but so near that the 

 charge passed through the primaries in a body, disabling but not 

 injuring the bird, which was then captured alive. The cause of 

 the attack was explained by the proximity of a carcass upon 

 which these birds had been feeding. The craw of the dead 

 eagle contained a large quantity of carrion, as I learned upon 

 skinning it." 



The Golden Eagle frequents the whole of North America, 

 north of Mexico. It breeds chiefly in the unfrequented moun- 

 tainous regions of its range. It also frequents the northern por- 

 tions of the Old World. 



Genus EALL51ETUS Savigny, 1809. 



Haliseetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus). Bald Eagle. 



Falco leucocephalus LINNAEUS, S. N., ed. 12, I, 17C6, 124. 

 Haliceetus leucocephalus BOIE, Isis, 1822, 548. 

 Falco washingtonianus NUTTALL, Man., I, 1832, 67. 

 Popular synonyms: OLD ABE. WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. GRAY EAGLE. 

 AMERICAN SEA EAGLE. BIBD OF WASHINGTON. 



The Bald Eagle may be considered a rare resident. It is, 

 however, rather frequent along the eastern shore of Lake Michi- 

 gan during the fall and winter. In the spring of 1897 a pair 

 nested near Millers, Indiana and Mr. Edward Carr obtained the 

 young birds. On August 8, 1897, I saw five individuals of this 

 species at Millers and obtained one of them. While Mr. J. 



*Trans. Illinois State Agri. Society, Vol. I, 1853-1854, 580. 



tBirds of Northeastern Illinois. Bull, of the Essex Institute, Vol. VIII, 1876, 119. 



