Golden Eagle 181] 
or on a ledge in the precipitous banks of streams. Dille 
has taken several nests near Greeley. They are built 
up of stout sticks, and lined with tufts of grass with 
the roots still on. The eggs are usually three or four 
in number and very handsome, being dull-creamy to 
pale greenish-white, spotted and blotched to a varying 
extent with lilacs and browns. They average about 
2°40 x 1°95. 
Genus AQUILA. 
Birds of a large size and robust form—wing 24 to 26; billand claws 
very powerful, the claw of the hind toe the largest, exceeding the outer 
toe (without claw). In most structural characters resembling Archi- 
buteo, with a fully feathered tarsus. Occiput and nape with lanceolate 
and acute feathers. 
There is only one species of the genus in the Americas—the Golden 
Eagle—while in the Old World there are several others. 
Golden Eagle. Aquila chrysaétos. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 349—Colorado Records—Allen 72, p. 159; Drew 
81, p. 141; 85, p. 17; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 197; Morrison 88, 
p. 1389; 89, p. 8; Kellogg 90, p. 87; Bendire 92, p. 263; Lowe 94, 
p. 267; Cooke 97, pp. 75, 204; Henderson, 03, p. 285; 09, p. 229; 
Dille 03, p. 74; Oberholser 06, p. 20; Gilman 07, p. 154; Warren 
08, p. 10; Rockwell 08, p. 162; Warren 09, p. 14. 
Description.—Male—Above and below dark sepia-brown, often a little 
lighter about the wing-coverts; the feathers at the base of the neck 
elongated and pointed, and a tawny-fulvous shade ; iris brown, bill and 
claws bluish-horn, cere and feet greenish-yellow. Length 32; wing 
24-5; tail13; culmen 1-9; tarsus 3-7. 
The female is larger—wing 25.5, tail 14. A young bird somewhat 
resembles the adult, but has the basal half of the tail white, the long 
neck-feathers hardly differentiated, and a good deal of concealed white 
on the scapulars, breast and primaries. 
Distribution—The northern portions of the Old and New Worlds, 
in the latter from Alaska to Labrador south of the Barren Grounds, 
extending southward in western America nearly to Mexico City, and 
in the east along the Alleghanies to South Carolina, chiefly in the 
mountains. 
In Colorado the Golden Eagle is a far from uncommon resident— 
chiefly in the mountains, where it breeds from the foothills up to about 
