360 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



July 3 to 21, as well as above timber line in the mountains to the 

 northward of J asper House in the late summer and early autumn. 



Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus Townsend. Bald Eagle. 



The bald eagle is quite generally distributed over the wooded por- 

 tion of the region and breeds throughout this area. Though the 

 birds usually migrate, some remain in winter as far north at least as 

 Great Slave Lake. While descending the Athabaska in the spring 

 of 1901 we saw a single bird near Brule Rapid May 11. This was 

 the only one seen during the season. 



In 1903 Alfred E. Preble and Merritt Gary noted the species at 

 Fort Providence on July 2 and 8. I saw one individual among the 

 Simpson Islands, about 50 miles northeast of Fort Resolution, July 

 21. During my trip northward from Fort Rae I found this a com- 

 mon species in the mountainous country south of Great Bear Lake. 

 It was first noted on Lake Hardisty August 18, when a nest, near 

 which the birds still lingered, was seen on a cliff near the water. It 

 was also noted almost daily in the mountains immediately south of 

 MacTavish Bay August 22 to 27. 



In 1904 I saw the species but once, noting a fine adult near the 

 junction of the Peel and the Mackenzie June 30. 



The ' nonne ' or bald eagle is enumerated among the birds of 

 Great Bear Lake by George Keith, a trader of the Northwest Com- 

 pany, in a letter written from there in 1812, containing the earliest 

 account of the fauna of that region.^ Richardson stated that it was 

 common in the country between Lake Superior and Great Slave 

 Lake ; ^ and King noted it on the Athabaska below the mouth of the 

 Clearwater in the summer of 1833.^ During Richardson's third 

 journey to the Arctic Sea he found it nesting on Great Bear River. 

 Ross listed it as occurring commonly in the Mackenzie River region 

 north to the Arctic coast, and as having been collected at Fort Simp- 

 son.^ MacFarlane found several nests in high trees on Anderson 

 and Lockhart rivers, where, however, the species was not numerous.'' 

 Besides specimens from these two localities, the bird catalogue of 

 the National Museum records skins from Fort Resolution, Big Island, 

 and Fort Rae, the last accompanied b}^ eggs. In the summer of 1892, 

 while engaged in exploring the country between Athabaska Lake 

 and Churchill River, J. B. Tyrrell observed a few bald eagies.^^ Rus- 

 sell mentions seeing one in the lake country to the north of Fort Rae 



aMasson, Les Bourgeois, II, p. 102, 1890. 

 ^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, p. 15, 1831. 

 ^ Narrative Journey to Arctic Ocean, I, p. 95, 1836. 



Arctic Searcliing Expedition, I, p. 202, 1851. 



Nat, Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), I^. 277, 1862. 

 f Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 434, 1891. 



^Ann. Rept. Can. Geol. Surv., VIII (new ser.), p. 14D, 1896. 



