BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 195 
AQUILA CHRYSAETOS (L.). (349.) 
.- GOLDEN EAGLE. 
That this Kagle has ever reared its brood within our borders 
I cannot say, but it is a well known fact that it visits different 
parts of the State at intervals.) The young of both sexes have 
been obtained from time to time, and mounted for parties here, 
and others to carry to the East. 
I have seen no mature specimens amongst those which have 
come under my observation, yet from the descriptions of spe- 
cific characters which I have consulted, I am compelled to think 
that some have been more advanced than the young of the year. 
It has been repeatedly affirmed by some of the older fur traders 
who were here before the Indians left, that instances of their 
breeding on high cliffs of rocks on the north shore of Lake 
Superior, were known, at the least, forty years ago. If this is 
true, there are no conceivable reasons why they should not do 
so still, for on the sea coast they have done so ever since the 
original settlement of the country. The general inaccessibility 
of their nesting places renders any special encroachment upon 
them impracticable. When speaking of this bird in his de- 
liightful work, Rev. J. Hibbert Langille says: 
“Grand as our common or White-headed Eagle is conceded 
to be, he is but a commonplace and vulgar bird compared with 
the present species. Indeed, the Golden Eagle is the noblest 
bird of our continent. Disdaining carrion, except in extreme 
hunger, and all ordinary pilfering and predatory habits, he 
subsists, it would’ seem, on the noblest game, such as hares, 
grouse, young fawns, and wild turkeys. Nor does he conde- 
scend to chase his prey and capture it only after a hot pursuit, 
after the manner of hawks and falcons, but detecting it afar 
with his keen eye, swoops down upon it from some obscure 
height, and takes it by surprise. Then, bearing it away to an 
elevated point in a tree, or on a high rock, he plucks it clean, 
and eats at his leisure. The loftiest mountaius are his home, 
and on the shelvings of their most rugged precipices he locates 
his eyrie. 
‘‘Occasionally he may make a detour into the settled parts of 
the country, soaring high, and in slow, wide and most majestic 
circles; or if he pass from one mountain height to some other 
in the distance, it is by the highest possible pathway in the 
sky. If hebeincertain stages of plumage, with good eyes, 
and the light favorable, one may distinguish him as a great 
