90 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Aquila chrysaetos (Linnaeus) 

 Golden Eagle 



Plate 49 



Falco chrysaetos Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. 1758. Ed. 10. 1:88 

 Aquila chrysaetos DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 4, fig. 14 



A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 162. No. 349 

 dquila, Lat., eagle; chrysaetos, Gr., 'asTo?, eagle; xpuad?, golden 



Description. Legs feathered to toes, tarsus whitish; basal two-thirds of 

 tail white; back of head and neck ocherous buff or "golden brown"; general 

 plumage dark brown with purplish gloss; the flight feathers and tip of 

 tail darker, the latter forming a conspicuous terminal zone of black; cere 

 and feet yellow; iris brown. Immature birds are darker and have the base 

 of tail only slightly marked with grayish, and the tarsi and under tail 

 coverts buffy. This species is little larger than the Bald eagle and at 

 a distance can hardly be distinguished from immature birds of that species. 



Length cf 30-34 inches, 9 35-41 ; extent cT 78-84, 9 84-92 ; wing cf 

 23-25, 9 25-27.5; tail 14-16; tarsus 3.6-4.3; weight 10 or 12 pounds. 



Distribution. This noble eagle inhabits the entire holarctic realm but 

 is mostly confined to mountainous districts. It is rather rare in the eastern 

 United States, and was never common in New York. In early colonial 

 days it undoubtedly nested in the Highlands, Catskills and Adirondacks, 

 but at the present time there seems to be no evidence of its nesting within 

 our borders, although in 1877 Doctor Mearns thought it possible that it 

 stiU bred in some secluded portion of the Highlands, and in 1900 Mr F. G. 

 Pember of Granville, N. Y., thought it might breed on Pond mountain, 

 Vermont, four miles east of Granville, where two young were taken from 

 a nest several years before. Doctor Ralph is also authority for the state- 

 ment that its eggs have been taken in the Adirondacks. This species 

 must now be classed as an accidental, or a rare transient visitant. Within 

 the last 60 years specimens have been reported from Schenectady, Putnam, 

 Fulton, Chemung, Steuben, Orange, Westchester, Suffolk, Rensselaer, 

 Herkimer, Columbia, Washington, Madison and Monroe counties. The 

 latest record before me is October 25, 1900, when a golden eagle was 

 captured alive in the city of Rochester, and placed in the local zoo (see 

 Eaton, Birds of Western N. Y. p. 35). 



