A GOLDEN EAGLE. 



In January, 1900, I had given me a 

 Golden Eagle. He had been picked up in 

 a stunned condition in the foot-hills, hav- 

 ing received a shock from the electric 

 wires, on which he had probably alighted 

 for a moment or struck in his flight. 

 There is an electric power-house in the 

 Sierras opposite Fresno, from which pole 

 lines carry the strong current down to be 

 used for power and light in the valley, 

 and this was by no means the first record 

 of eagles and other large birds being 

 stunned or killed by them. 



The person who found him had 

 brought him down with the idea of hav- 

 ing him stuffed, but as he showed a good 

 deal of life, I begged to keep him alive, 

 and he was handed over to me. He was 

 evidently a young bird of the previous 

 season, though nearly full grown. From 

 tip to tip of his wings he was over five 

 feet, and his wonderful black talons meas- 

 ured one and one-half to two inches be- 

 yond the feathers. His legs were hand- 

 somely feathered dow^i to the claws, and 

 his proud head, with its strong beak, 

 large, piercing eyes, and red and yellow- 

 brown feathers, was a thing of beauty. 

 The rest of his body was dark, almost 

 black, with the exception of three or four 

 white diamonds showing on the upper 

 tail feathers. 



I kept him in a big box open on one 

 side. When I first brought him home 

 and had put him into the box, a neigh- 

 bor's poodle came sniffing around for the 

 meat I had brought for the eagle. He 

 was on the back side of the box, and so 

 could not see that there was anything in 

 it, nor did he hear anything, but all at 

 once the scent of the bird must have 

 struck his nostrils, for with a squall of 

 fear he disappeared from the yard and 

 never afterward would venture near the 

 cage. 



During the time I kept the eagle, 

 some two months, he never showed any 

 desire to attack me, though his claws 

 would have gone through my hand like a 

 knife, nor did he display any fear of me. 

 He never made any attempt to get out 

 while anyone was in sight of him, nor did 



I catch him in any such attempt, but 

 sometimes at night I would hear him, and 

 every morning his wings, beak and feath- 

 ers showed he never gave up the hope of 

 getting free. 



I never fed him to the full extent of his 

 capacity, but gave him from a pound to 

 a pound and a half of meat daily at noon, 

 which he devoured in a very short time, 

 sticking his claws through the toughest 

 beef and tearing it like ribbons with his 

 beak. It was wonderful to see how clean 

 he could pick a bone with his clumsy- 

 looking great beak. I never knew him to 

 touch any kind of food but raw meat. 

 When anything was handed in to him, no 

 matter how high up, he never accepted it 

 in his bill, but struck at it with a light- 

 ning-like movement of his claws, scarce- 

 ly ever missing it. 



One day he snapped in two one of the 

 bars across his cage, pried off another 

 and got out. I was telephoned that my 

 eagle was out, and hurried home to find 

 all the children in the neighborhood 

 blockaded indoors. The eagle was 

 perched on the grape-arbor easily survey- 

 ing the lay of things. A cat had crawled 

 into the wood-pile and under the door- 

 steps the venerable cock of the yard was 

 congratulating himself on his safety, but 

 feeling rather undignified. I procured a 

 rope and took my first lessons in lasso- 

 ing. The eagle had been so closely con- 

 fined that he had not been able to gain the 

 full use of his wings, and so could only 

 run or flutter a few feet from the ground. 

 I finally recaptured him and brought him 

 back. He showed no fear and offered lit- 

 tle resistance. 



About the middle of March the weather 

 became very hot, and it was really 

 cruel to keep the bird penned up in such 

 close quarters in such weather, so I took 

 him out to the plains and set him free. 

 He could not use his wings much, and it 

 is very doubtful if he escaped the shot- 

 gun or rifle of some predatory small boy, 

 but it was the best I could do for him. 

 He was a beautiful specimen of a bird, 

 and I only wish I could have kept him. 



Charles Elmer Jenney. 



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