50 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Aquila Chrysaetos, Linn. 



PLATE XII. 



The Golden Eagle, although a permanent resident in the United States, is 

 of rare occurrence, it being seldom that one sees more than a pair or two in 

 the course of a year, unless he be an inhabitant of the mountains, or of the 

 large plains spread out at their base. I have seen a few of them on the wing 

 along the shores of the Hudson, others on the upper parts of the Mississippi, 

 some among the Alleghanies, and a pair in the State of Maine. At Labrador 

 we saw an individual sailing, at the height of a few yards, over the moss- 

 covered surface of the dreary rocks. 



Although possessed of a powerful flight it has not the speed of many 

 Hawks, nor even of the White-headed Eagle. It cannot, like the latter, 

 pursue and seize on the wing the prey it longs for, but is obliged to glide 

 down through the air for a certain height to insure the success of its enter- 

 prise. The keenness of its eye, however, makes up for this defect, and 

 enables it to spy, at a great distance, the objects on which it preys; and it 

 seldom misses its aim, as it falls with the swiftness of a meteor towards the 

 spot on which they are concealed. When at a great height in the air, its 

 gyrations are uncommonly beautiful, being slow and of wide circuit, and 

 becoming the majesty of the king of birds. It often continues them for hours 

 at a time, with apparently the greatest ease. 



The nest of this noble species is always placed on an inaccessible shelf of 

 some rugged precipice, — never, that I am aware of, on a tree. It is of great 

 size, flat, and consists merely of a few dead sticks and brambles, so bare at 

 times that the eggs might be said to be deposited on the naked rock. They 

 are generally two, sometimes three, having a length of 3^ inches, and a 

 diameter at the broadest part of 2^. The shell is thick and smooth, dull 

 white, brushed over, as it were, with undefined patches of brown, which are 

 most numerous at the larger end. The period at which they are deposited, 

 is the end of February or the beginning of March. I have never seen the 

 young when newly hatched, but know that they do not leave the nest until 

 nearly able to provide for themselves, when their parents drive them off from 

 their home, and finally from their hunting grounds. A pair of these birds 

 bred on the rocky shores of the Hudson for eight successive years, and in 

 the same chasm of the rock. 



