316 



NORTH AMERICAN J31Rb3. 



phus Heerinaim, in his Eeport of the survey between Fort Yuma and San 

 Francisco, speaks of seeing one of these birds near Liveruioro I'ass, and of 

 meeting others in Nortliern California, and of an individual killed in the 



mountains near Mokelum- 

 ue liiver. He regarded it, 

 both in that state and else- 

 where, as a rare and wild 

 bird. It is not mentioned 

 as occurring in Greenland. 

 It was found breeding in 

 Napa A'alley, Cal, by Mr. 

 F. Gruber. 



A bird was secured alive 

 in Brighton, near Boston, 

 in 1837, by being taken in 

 a trap wliich had been set 

 for another purpose. Its 

 occurrence, howevei', near 

 the sea-coast, is very rare, 

 and even among the moun- 

 tiiins it is never found ex- 

 cejit in occasional pairs. 

 It breeds in the mountain- 

 ous portions of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Vermont, and 

 Xew York, and was for- 

 merly not unfreqnent 

 among the cliffs of tlie Hudson liiver. Steamboats and railroads have, 

 however, driven this wild bird from its romantic retreats in that (piarter. 

 In Franconia, N. H., for quite a number of years, a pair occupied a nest on 

 an inaccessible rock, near the top of a mountain, known as Eagle Clitt', in 

 sight of, and opposite, the Profile House. Kepeated efforts have been made 

 to reach its nest, but thus far w'*^iiout success. In the sunnner of 1855 a 

 renewed attempt was .nade to scale the precipice over whicli the shelving 

 rock, on whicli the nest stands, i)rqjects. A party was formed, and iilthough 

 they succeeded in ascending the mountain, whicli had never been achieved 

 before, they could reach only a point beyond and above, not the nest itself. 

 The attempt to pass to it Avas abandoned as too perilous. The party re- 

 ported a large coVection of bones in its immediate vicinity, with other 

 evidences of the accumulated plumler of many years, as well as a i)lentiful 

 supply of fresh food at the time visited. 



Witliout here seeking to affect the (piestion of identity of species, it is 

 interesting to note certain peculiarities in the European Golden Eagle so far 

 not noticed or of rare occuiTence in the American birds. Mr. I. W. P. Orde 



Aquila chrymitiis. 



