360 THEOUGH TPIE MACKEN"ZIE BASIN 



There are no eggs, but four fine specimen skins, of the 

 golden eagle in the Dominion Museum at Ottawa! 



362. Bald Eagle — Haliaetus leucocephaliis (Linn.); 



Major Bendire has made no reference to the few speci- 

 mens of eggs collected in the Mackenzie Eiver District many 

 years ago, nor to the several nests secured .by us on the 

 Lockhart and Anderson rivers. They were built on high 

 trees close to the river banks, and were composed of dry 

 sticks, twigs and branches, lined with deer hair, mosses, hay, 

 and other soft materials. There were two or three eggs in 

 each nest. In one instance only did the parents make any 

 hostile demonstration when their nest was being robbed — 

 they generally flew away and kept at a safe distance. They 

 are not very numerous in the Arctic regions, while it is 

 doubtful if any breed to the northward of Fort Anderson. 

 An example bird was shot near Eort Resolution, Great Slave 

 Lake, in the spring of 1885, and it was afterwards forwarded 

 to Dr. Bell. 



Major Bendire states that " incubation lasts about a 

 month, and both sexes take part in this duty. But a single 

 brood is raised in a season. One of the laid eggs is always 

 somewhat larger than the other, and occasionally this differ- 

 ence in size is quite marked. The eggs are pure white in 

 colour, but frequently nest-stained; in very rare instances 

 slight traces of markings are observable, of a pale buffy- 

 brown, and in the handsome series of eggs of the bald eagle 

 in Dr. Ralph's collection are two such specimens. The shell 

 is strong, granulated, and without any lustre. The shape 

 varies from a rounded ovate to an ovate, the former pre- 

 dominating. Eggs from the more northern breeding grounds 

 are considerably larger than those from Florida and the 

 Gulf Coast." 



In his " Catalogue of Canadian Birds," Professor J. 

 Macoun has entered the northern bald eagle \inder H. leuco- 

 cephalus alascanus C. A. Townsend, 1899. The white- 



