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 tlie 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 numei’ous 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. 
