The Golden Eagle 



Incubation lasts up- 

 wards of thirty days, and 

 the young when hatched 

 appear to be all eyes (the 

 elaboration of the "eagle 

 eye" is a most important 

 task in nature's prepara- 

 tion for this infant king), 

 and are so weak that they 

 cannot hold their heads 

 up. They are covered at 

 first with a white or pale 

 yellowish white down, con- 

 spicuous marks to the eye 

 of an air scout ; but nature 

 has no provision against 

 human attack, and the 

 Eagle fears nought else. 

 In case of invasion, the 

 king of birds can only 

 lurk anxiously in the offing 

 and give vent to his anxie- 

 ties by a peculiar screak- 

 ing, known throughout 

 literature as a "scream," 

 cheop' cheop', tsyewk' tsy- 

 ewk' — slowly. This is a 

 rather pathetic and quite 

 inadequate sound, if intim- 

 idation be intended. In- 

 deed, on occasion, it sounds 

 more like the meditations 

 of a young "broiler" that it does like a master cry. 



The young Eaglets require at least three months for their develop- 

 ment, and when they do launch out into the world, they are likely to be a 

 little wobbly for several days. Professor Loye Holmes Miller vouches 1 

 for the following account given him by Miss F. E. Schuman, a student 

 in one of his biology classes: "Last summer while my father and I were 

 extracting honey at the apiary about a mile southeast of Thacher School, 

 Ojai, California, we noticed a golden eagle teaching its young one to fly. 

 It was about ten o'clock. The mother started from the nest in the crags 



Taken in Riverside County Photo by Wright M. Pi 



A ROMANTIC NICHE 



1 Condor, Vol. XX.. p. 212. 



1708 



