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species; but, so far as I can judge, I do not think that he is justified in so doing. Mr. Blanford 

 believes that Aquila chrysaetus is found in many parts of Persia ; and Mr. A. O. Hume thinks 

 that he saw it on the Mekran coast. Mr. V. Scully, who met with it in Eastern Turkestan, 

 writes (Stray Feathers, iv. p. 123): — "This species is the celebrated ' Birkut,' the name by which 

 the Golden Eagle is -known in Khokand and Western Turkestan generally; in Kashgharia, 

 however, it is called ' Karakush,' i. e. black bird. The trained bird is very common in Eastern 

 Turkestan, every governor of a district or town usually having several. It is said to live and 

 breed in the hills south of Yarkand and near Khoten, where the young birds are caught to be 

 trained for purposes of falconry. A few stragglers occasionally visit the plains in winter. I saw 

 one a few miles from Yarkand in January, and another near Beshkant in February. In the wild 

 state this Eagle's prey is said to consist of the stag, the ' kik ' (Antilope gutturosa), the wild 

 cat, the fox, and the wolf. The trained Karakush is always kept hooded when it is in doors, 

 except when about to be fed ; and the method of carrying it to the chase is the following. The 

 man who is to carry the Eagle is mounted on a pony, and has his right hand and wrist protected 

 by a thick gauntlet. A crutch, consisting of a straight piece of stick carrying a curved cross 

 piece of horn or wood (the concavity being directed upwards), is attached to the front of the 

 saddle ; the man grasps the cross piece of the crutch with his gloved hand, and the Eagle then 

 perches on his wrist. I have ridden about for four or five hours attended by men carrying 

 Birkuts in this way ; and they never complained of feeling tired." According to Mr. Hume this 

 Eagle is of such excessive rarity south of the snows in the Himalayas that it scarcely deserves a 

 place in the Indian list ; and Dr. Jerdon writes (Ibis, 1871, p. 244) : — " I have seen this magni- 

 ficent Eagle occasionally in the upper portion of the Sutlej valley, always at great elevations, 

 never less than 12,000 feet; but in Ladak it is much more common from 10,000 feet to 11,000 

 feet, and I used to watch in vain for two or three nights in succession to get a shot at a pair 

 that roosted in a magnificent deep ravine close to where my tent was pitched. It is always said 

 by the hill-people to prey much on Tetraogalhcs and Lerwa." 



It is found throughout the mountainous districts of Eastern Siberia. Dr. Radde records it 

 from the Onon river; and Dr. Dybowski, writing respecting its occurrence in Dauria, says 

 (J. f. O. 1872, p. 345): — "In Kulluke we only observed examples of this Eagle on passage. In 

 1871, during the autumn migration, they were more numerous than in former years; during the 

 first half of October we saw every day from five to ten individuals. They nest in the forests 

 of the Irkutsk valleys (where we saw everywhere birds of the year), also at Lake Kosogol. 

 "We often saw them striking Ruddy Sheldrakes and hawking after Clien hyperboreus and Spermo- 

 philus eversmanni." Colonel Prjevalsky obtained one in the autumn at Alashan, in Mongolia; 

 and he also observed it in Kansu and Koko-nor, where, however, it was very scarce ; and Pere 

 David records it as tolerably numerous and resident in the larger mountain ranges of the Chinese 

 empire. 



In the Nearctic Region the Golden Eagle is chiefly confined to the mountainous regions of 

 North America, and is nowhere numerous. Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway say (N. Am. 

 B. iii. p. 315) that on the Atlantic coast it has been obtained as far south as Philadelphia, and 

 twice at Washington. It breeds in the mountainous portions of Maine, New Hampshire, 

 Vermont, and New York, and it was formerly not unfrequent among the cliff's of the Hudson 



