

California Notes 

 By Jo Jin Lewis Childs 



TAKING A SET OF GOLDEN EAGLE 

 (Aqiiila chrys&tos) 



T WAS on the morning of February 17th that Mr. A. M. Inger. 

 soil, O. W. Howard and myself left San Diego for an eighteen, 

 mile drive np Mission Canon to investigate a nest of the Golden 

 Eagle. The recent heavy rains had so washed and damaged the 

 naturally poor roads around the mountain sides that they were well-nigh im- 

 passable. About noon, however, we succeeded in safely reaching the base 

 of a tall peak where a pair of Golden Eagles had nested for many years. 

 The top of this peak where the nest was located is about one thousand feet 

 above the bottom of the canon and so steep that I did not attempt to climb 

 it, but Messrs. Ingersoll and Howard forded the rapid torrent to the other 

 side of the canon and after toiling for about an hour reached the top of the 

 rocky summit, and crawling out upon some big boulders made slippery by 

 the rain, which was now falling in torrents, and looking down a 200-foot 

 cliff saw the nest twenty feet below them with two eggs. These were se- 

 cured by the use of a 25-foot pole to the end of which was attached a small 

 scoop-net. The operation was an extra hazardous one at any time, but 

 doubly so on this occasion on account of the rocks being so wet and slippery 

 that it was difficult to maintain a foothold. From the wagon at the foot 

 of the peak in the canon below I could just distinguish the two moving forms 

 above the cliff, but to tell whether they were man or beast was impossible. 



The set proved to be a very beautiful one, one egg being heavily and 

 brightly marked, the other pure white without a spot or mark of any kind. 

 The trip to the top of the peak and back to the carriage occupied a little 

 less than two hours and both men were drenched to the skin by the heavy 

 rain which had set in. Fearing that the shower had caused further damage 

 to the road over which we came we decided not to return that way, but to 

 take an easier road though a longer one. At three o'clock we started, wet 

 and shivering, on a twenty-six mile drive back to San Diego, reaching our 

 destination late in the evenine. 



