THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



{Aquila chrysce'os.) 



High soars a patriarchal oak, 



Its umbrage scath M by lightning stroke, 



Upon whose topmost bough doth chvell 



An Eagle, monarch of the dell. 



O 'erlooking from his eyrie grand 



The wide expanse of forest land ; 



Now rising high in air to sweep 



In circling rings the upper deep, 



Now pois'd and balanc'd in mid-space, 



As resting from his airy chase ; 



Now sweeping downward on its way, 



As pirate bark swoops en its prey. 



— Isaac McLellan, ''KuiBed Grouse." 



Either in the coloring of their pkim- 

 age, their form, their graceful flight, or 

 in some of their habits, all birds are at- 

 tractive. But with Pliny we may say, 

 ''Of all the birds with which v/e are ac- 

 quainted, the Eagle is looked upon as 

 the most noble, and the mout remarkable 

 for its strength." Pliny also says that 

 it was Caius Marius that "assigned the 

 Eagle exclusively to the Roman le- 

 gions." He also tells us that it was 

 held by the Romans to be the only bird 

 that was never killed by lightning, and 

 for this reason it was pronounced the 

 armour-bearer of Jove. 



The Golden Eagle — "The ancient 

 Monarch of the birds" — is a resident of 

 the colder and temperate regions of the 

 northern hemisphere. In North Ameri- 

 ca it may be found from the Arctic 

 Ocean southward to Mexico. East of the 

 Mississippi River isolated pairs are oc- 

 casionally seen. It is more common in 

 the mountain regions along the western 

 part of North America. Here, in the 

 solitude which the Eagle loves so well, 

 on inaccessible cliffs it builds its nest 

 and rears its young. Intense cold does 

 not seem to affect it and its migrations, 

 if the word may be appHed to its wan- 

 derings, are merely for the purpose of 

 obtaining a more liberal supply of food. 

 There are excellent reasons for beHeving 

 that the Golden Eagle not only becomes 



attached to a nesting site and will oc- 

 cupy it year after year, but that it will 

 also remain within prescribed limits as 

 long as food is plentiful. Captain 

 Charles Bendire quotes the observations 

 of Mr. W. Steinbeck regarding the nest- 

 ing of Golden Eagles near Hollister, 

 California. These Eagles nested in 

 trees and "each pair has its range and 

 will drive any outsider away from it. 

 These ranges are usually from two to 

 six miles wide, and the birds become so 

 attached to them that it seems impossible 

 to drive them away." In an article pub- 

 lished in the "Zoe" (April, 1890), Mr. 

 H. R. Taylor writes as follows : "After 

 several years' study of these Eagles the 

 writer feels that he has formed the ac- 

 quaintance of a number of individuals 

 of this species, and this purely from the 

 regularity of their habits. The first 

 Eagle I ever saw in Santa Clara Coun- 

 ty was moving about the grassy top of 

 a big hill, and on nearly every day 

 thereafter I observed him at his favor- 

 ite playground. On my visit the year 

 following he was still doing 'lookout' 

 duty at his oU post. The nest of this 

 Eagle had a curious ornament to the 

 interior in the shape of a large soap 

 root. The new nest, built the year af- 

 ter, also contained a soap root, which 

 fact is of interest as showing the in- 

 dividualitv of mv feathered friend. An- 



