128 



THE OOLOGIST 



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Golden Eagle Nest on Rocky Cliff. 



Looking Down Cilffff 75 feet into Nest. 



— Phcto by J. B. Dixon. 



up more than one nest in the Spring, 

 and sometimes icr no apparent rea- 

 son, desert nests upon which they 

 liave done consideraible worlv. The 

 nest itself is a huge structure and if 

 used for many years becomes so 

 heavy with moisture in the Spring", 

 and rotten on the bottom that it 

 slides out. One nest situated in a 

 large crotch of a sycamore was five 

 feet high and six 'eet across the tcp. 

 The nest cavity being fourteen inches 

 wide by fcur inches deep, and was 

 softly lined with red dry grass, stub- 

 ble, oak leaves and dagger leaves. I 

 have never yet found a nest that did 

 not have some dagger leaves in it, 

 and in some places the birds must 

 have carried them lor some distance. 

 In other instances, pepper and eu- 

 calyptus leaves were used profusely 

 in lining and were carried several 



:^:ile2 as tl^-ere v.^ere neither cf these 

 trees grcwing close by. The odor 

 from either cf these leaves is distaste- 

 ful to bugs, and lice of all kinds, and 

 I think this the reason they took such 

 pains to secure it when there was 

 plenty of other nesting material close 

 by. 



I have noted nests with sets in 

 which the incubaticn was advanced 

 one week en the first day of March, 

 r,r..] the latest nesting date I have is 

 Arril cth. incubation just commenced. 

 Two eggs is the usual number, al- 

 thci'gh cne is as common as three in 

 a set. The ground color of the eggs 

 varies from a clear white to a dirty 

 white, and the surface of some eggs 

 is often covered with little bumps 

 over the entire surface, looking some- 

 what like warts. The markings are 

 as otten on the, smaller end of the 



