THE OOLOGIST 
Very Unusual. 
A golden eagle was caught alive and 
apparently in a perfectly healthy con- 
dition and uninjured at Lacon, IIl., 
April 20, 1910 under the following ex- 
traordinary circumstances: 
A local fisherman was in a boat 
near the shore of the overflowed Illi- 
nois River bottoms when a “black 
eagle’ which had been sitting in a 
tree on a nearby bluff flew suddenly 
down onto the ground into the brush 
very near the boat, in an apparent en- 
deavor to catch a mouse or some sim- 
ilar object. The fisherman ran to- 
wards the eagle which immediately 
threw itself upon its back and com- 
menced to strike out with its claws. 
He threw over it, some strong fish net 
webbing, which he had with him, and 
captured the bird, took it up home and 
kept it for some time in a box. 
Extraordinary as it may seem, in a 
few days the eagle became perfectly 
tame and when seen by the editor, a 
couple of days after capture, permit- 
ted itself to be stroked and handled, 
and even lifted out of the box and held 
in its captor’s arms. Repeatedly we 
saw him take it by the legs and lift 
its feet and claws from the bottom of 
the box, stroke the bird on its sides, 
head and back, and extend its wings 
one at a time. We ourselves repeat- 
edly stroked the bird on the head with 
no resistance from the bird except a 
lowering of the head. As we would 
stroke it, the bird would gradually 
lower its head closer and closer to 
the bottom of the box in which it was 
kept, and it frequently uttered a plain- 
tive low laugh-like gurgle, and acting 
throughout much like a young bird 
that had just left the nest; though 
there were no signs of down upon the 
plumage and no marks by which we 
could determine this fact for a cer- 
tainty. 
There is no nesting site of this bird 
within the State of Illinois known to 
us, nor within several hundred miles 
of Lacon, and this is the first Golden 
Eagle that has come under our per- 
sonal knowledge within the confines 
of the state. 
* * * 
Since writing the foregoing, the bird 
has been turned out and for several 
days stayed around the town in the 
trees and on the house and chimney 
tops, much to the fright of the local 
poultry and a few ladies and many 
small] children; doing so far as we 
know absolutely no damage whatever 
to any living children. Where it final- 
ly went is unknown to us, but we trust 
it will not be molested wherever it 
may choose to go. EDITOR. 
72S eee 
The 
American Robin in 
England. 
More of 
In the northern suburbs of London 
and across the north-eastern counties 
a curious bird migration was to be 
seen today. One of the last of the 
winter visitors was leaving. The 
birds had begun to find England too 
warm, and the desire to nest in more 
congenial places was upon them. 
In spite of an early spring, the de- 
parture is rather late, but fieldfares 
are the least regular of all the mi- 
grants. Today they were flying high 
and in a steady stream; but during 
the whole journey, at any rate across 
Hertfordshire, they were chattering 
in their complacent, unmistakable 
manner. 
Many of the fieldfares have already 
landed in Scandinavia. Probably a 
‘good many will be left in England for 
some days yet, but this year the last 
of the winter visitors have conven- 
iently left just as the host of summer 
visitors are arriving. The two streams 
will pass each other, though on the 
whole the feldfares diverge to the 
north of most of our spring comers. 
