AN EAGLE WITH A BAD RECORD 63 



an account of a child having been attacked by a fierce Eagle, 

 and rescued by a heroic mother, or else actually carried oflf to 

 the top of a tall tree or rocky cliff, from which the child was 

 finally rescued unhurt, etc., etc. It is quite time that this 

 absurd yarn, which is nearly as old as the Swiss Alps in which 

 it originated, were consigned to the oblivion it deserves. 

 Eagles know what guns are, and nothing is farther from their 

 thoughts than attacking the children of civilized man, the 

 arch-enemy of all wild life, and the exterminator of species. 



The Golden Eagle ^ is in no sense whatever a golden- 

 colored bird. Its plumage is dark brown, with a very slight 

 outside wash of lighter brown. It would be much more ap- 

 propriate to call it the "brown eagle." In appearance it 

 looks very much like a white-headed eagle in its second year, 

 except that its tarsi are feathered quite down to the toes. By 

 this point it can always be distinguished from its nearest 

 relative. 



This bird has a very bad record as a destroyer of lambs, 

 poultry, game birds, young deer, antelope, rabbits and other 

 small mammals. It cares very little for fish, and prefers to 

 frequent interior regions, where either domestic animals or 

 wild species of good size are abundant. By preference it is 

 a bird of the mountains, and although found all the way from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Mexico to the Arctic 

 Ocean, it is most abundant in the great mountain ranges of 

 the West. In the cattle country east of the Rockies, many a 

 Golden Eagle dies ignominiously from eating poisoned meat 

 that is intended for wolves. 



1 A-quil'a chrys-a-e'tos. Size, about the same as the white-headed eagle. 



