THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 265 



that the eggs differ very greatly in markings from year to year, although 

 coming from the same nest and evidently from the same pair of birds. 



In southern Oregon each pair of Eagles seem to confine themselves to 

 a certain district, over which they hunt, and no others are allowed to encroach 

 on their ground. All the nests in that region which I know of were about 

 20 miles apart. 



Nidification begins early. In southern Arizona Mr. W. E. D. Scott saw 

 them carrying nesting material on December 10, 1884, and they probably lay 

 in January or February. In California full sets of eggs are usually found 

 between the 10th and 20th of March and occasionally in the last week of Feb- 

 ruary. In southern Oregon they lay between April 1 and April 10 ; in Colorado 

 about the middle of March ; in the far North, in the Arctic regions, from about 

 the 1st of May to the beginning of June, Mr. R. MacFarlane taking eggs but 

 slightly incubated on June 23, 1862, near Franklin Bay, British North America, 

 within the Arctic circle. There they are summer visitors only, and in the 

 United States constant residents wherever found. 



The nest of the Golden Eagle is a large structure ; one near Camp 

 Harney, Oregon, situated in a large pine tree close to the trunk and about 50 

 feet from the ground, was 3£ feet high by 3 feet wide. It consisted of large 

 sticks, some of these over 2 inches in diameter, and it was sparingly lined 

 with bits of juniper bark, pine needles, and green fir tops, evidently broken 

 off by the birds. This nest when first found, on May 18, 1875, contained two 

 young, probably two weeks old. These I took three weeks afterwards and 

 kept them over two years. The top of the nest was nearly flat, and con- 

 tained, besides the birds, a medium-sized marmot {Arctomys flaviventer), partly 

 eaten. The parents made no resistance when the young were taken, although 

 the latter protested considerably while being put in a gunny bag. The male 

 flew at once out of sight and the female circled around at a great height, 

 uttering shrill cries resembling the syllables "kiah-kiah-kiah." The young 

 Eagles were very cleanly, fed readily on fresh meat and such birds and small 

 mammals as I could obtain for them, and they at first used water freely. They 

 grew finely, and the difference in size between these two birds, in their second 

 year, and an old male caught about that time was astonishing; the latter looked 

 dwarfed alongside of them, due possibly to their always having an abundance 

 of food and plenty of clean water, as well as a roomy stable to exercise in. 



Mr. Denis Gale writes me: "Here in Colorado, in the numerous glades 

 running from the valleys into the foothills, high inaccessible ledges are quite 

 frequently met with which afford the Eagles secure sites for their enormous 

 nests. I know of one nest that must contain two wagon loads of material. 

 It is over 7 feet high and quite 6 feet wide on its upper surface. In most 

 cases the cliff above overhangs the site. At the end of February or the 

 beginning of March, the needed repairs to the nest are attended to, and the 

 universal branch of evergreen is laid upon the nest, seemingly for any purpose 

 save that of utility. This feature has been present in all the nests I have 



