Nov., 1904 1 
THE CONDOR 
167 
and so close that one can nearly reach the upper while standing in the lower nest. 
The upper nest is on a projecting spur of rock, and was built in 1902 but 
never occupied; the lower is in a^corner formed by natural cleavage, and it is an 
immense structure of sticks, grass, Spanish bayonet, and cornstalks — a very old 
nest, but until this year long unoccupied. 
Ever since 1898 I have made three or four trips to these nests each spring at 
intervals of two or three weeks, but although birds were frequently seen, all my 
efforts were fruitless until March 12th of this year, when my patience and perse- 
verencehad their reward, and I had the very great pleasure of taking from the lower 
nest of the two a set of eggs which I believe to be the largest eagle’s eggs on record. 
This was the first time eagles {Aquila chrysaetos) had nested in the canyon since 
1897. It was evident that they were in the vicinity for at least one was near by on 
every trip that I made, but always high in air and generally to the southward. 
My first trip to “Spook” Canyon this year was later than usual. No birds 
were seen in the vicinity, and the nests appeared as usual. I had carried a big 
coil of rope up the hill to the first and back again, and had commenced the ascent 
of the ledge to the others with reluctance, fully prepared for my usual disappoint- 
ment, but this time the Fates were with me. When I was within a few feet of the lower 
nest, only separated from it by a projeeting ledge of rock which hid it from view, 
there was a wild flutter of wings, and the biggest and blackest eagle that I ever 
saw sailed out from almost under my nose and glided away across the canyon. It 
is quite pleasing to have little surprises like that when one crawling up a slippery, 
moss-covered ledge, but that sort of surprise did not trouble me much. The eggs 
were a greater and more interesting one, and in another minute I was sitting in 
the nest chuckling to myself over my find, and wondering what the eagle would 
do if she returned. But she left me in peace, and it is perhaps fortunate for some 
of us that our Aquilan friends do not come back to us at times. 
The eggs seemed pretty large to me while I was packing them, but it was not 
until they were placed beside others of my series that I realized how much beyond 
the average they were in size. I can find no published record of anything at all 
approximating them, and measurements that I have been able to obtain of large 
eggs in the collections of many well-known ornithologists fall far short of their 
dimensions. Abnormal eggs are not so common even among the smaller birds as 
to be uninteresting, and among the Raptores they are rare — seemingly less so, 
however, among the eagles (^Aquila) for with them one egg much larger than the 
others in a .set is rather frequently met with, but for both eggs to be of abnormal 
size is rare indeed. 
Major Bendire and Mr. Davie give the average size of the egg of the golden 
eagle as about 2.93 by 2.30 inches. The largest set of which I have been able to 
obtain measurements out of about 300 sets in the collections of Messrs. C. W. Cran- 
dall, J. E. Childs, A. M. Ingersoll, A. W. Jonnson, J. B. Preston, A. E. Price, Wil- 
liam Steinbeck, and H. R. Taylor, and in my own series, is a remarkable shaped 
set in the collection of Mr. A. W. Johnson, taken in Spain, and measuring 3.26 by 
2.34, and 3.23 by 2.34 inches respectively. Mr. Johnson also informs me that he 
has a record of a Scotch taken egg, now in England, measuring 3.26 by 2.55 
inches. These three eggs and one in a set of two in Mr. Price’s collection meas- 
uring 3.23 by 2.44 inches, are the largest eggs I have so far heard of, and they are 
the only ones that exceed 3.20 inches in length. 
Mr. Johnson, whose large series contains besides his California sets, many from 
Scotland, Spain, Lapland, Bulgaria and other countries, writes me that he finds an 
egg that measures 3.10 in length very large. Eggs above 3.15 are very except- 
