88 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Yol. 12-No. 6 
THE / 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
\ AND / 
OOLOGIST. 
\ MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF 
NAT U R A L HISTORY, 
ESPECIALLY DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF 
TB IRDS, 
THEIR JNE STS AND EGGS. 
DESIGNED AS A MEA^S Fffe THE INTERCHANGE OF NOTES AND 
OBSERVATIONS ONtBIRD AND INSECT LIFE. 
F. H. CARPENTER Managing Editor. 
409r' Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 
J. p/EKER NORRIS, (^logical Editor, 
204 South Seventh Street, Philadelphia, Penn. 
FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publisher. 
409 Washington St., Boston, Mass. 
mountain bandit, I excited no small amount of 
curiosity. The idea of my wanting a drill 
made was only associated in their minds with 
mining, and I very soon began to be the object 
of many nicely framed questions, all tending to 
find out what and where 1 were working, and 
whether 1 had struck something rich. After 
answering some of the questions in a general 
way to excite more curiosity, and to leave them 
an item to talk over, I got my new drill and 
iron dowels and started for the eagle’s nest on 
the clifF. 
Having walked a long distance that day 1 
camped early, and determined to get the eggs 
on the morrow. Next morning, feeling re- 
freshed from a sleep under a shed, I started 
very early for the cliff. Arriving there I had 
the pleasure of seeing the sun rise over the 
Coast Range of mountains. Stripping off my 
pack I sat down to think and rest, as the climb 
up hill had given me a good pull. While rest- 
ing I saw six White-throated Swifts ( Cypselus 
saxatilis) flying around, and I presume they al- 
so had selected this cliff as a nesting place. 
Taking my drill and hatchet I began to chip 
steps here and there, and by this means got up 
some eight or ten feet to a small platform just 
large enough to enable me to stand and turn 
around. Standing, I drilled a hole up as high 
as I could conveniently reach, three inches in 
the rock. Then descending 1 cut from a live 
oak tree a limb with convenient limbs to step 
in, and fastening the smaller end to one of my 
iron dowels I climbed up and placing the dowel 
in the hole 1 had drilled, I had a safe and con- 
venient tree ladder. I could drill another hole 
two or four feet higher, and by using three sep- 
arate ladders I at length arrived at the nest. (I 
had drilled two holes before the eagle flew off 
from the nest). Not being able to look into 
the nest I pulled part of it away and found 
among the old sticks, old squirrel bones, and 
feathers that looked as if they were placed 
there years ago, and I have no doubt that this 
same pair of birds have bred there for the last 
decade. Looking into the nest I saw two darkly 
marked eggs, and as ornaments one partly eaten 
squirrel and six meadow mice. These were 
probably brought to the female by the male for 
food. This nest was only lined with very fine 
grass and a few feathers. 
Placing the eggs in my side pockets I tied my 
coat together in a bunch back of my arms, and 
with care managed to get down safely to the 
ground. After getting my apparatus down I 
picked up my traps and having partly blown 
my eggs I started for home some ten miles off, 
which I reached by nine o’clock, having had 
one of the most successful and pleasantest trips 
of my life. This last set of eggs were well in- 
cubated. They were nearly spherical in shape, 
and were marked with a dull reddish brown 
color all over in blotches and spots. 
Since 1 arrived from my trip, I have taken 
another set of Golden Eagle’s eggs, which are 
a curiosity. One egg is pure white, the other 
brightly marked with reddish brown. The 
markings are profuse, and the spots and 
blotches are confluent on the larger end. The 
nest was in a white oak tree about thirty feet 
from the ground. It was lined with grass and 
the long moss so plentiful in California. The 
measurements of the four sets of Golden Ea- 
gle's eggs that are now before me, are; First 
set taken March 11th: 31-32x210-32, 3x210- 
32 ; second set taken March 16th, have passed 
from my hands; third set taken March 17th, 
3 2-32 x 2 11-32, 3 1-32 x 2 10-32 ; fourth set taken 
March 18th, 2 26-32x2 11-32, 2 30-32x210-32; 
fifth set taken March 29th, 2 30-32 x 2 8-32, 2 27- 
32x2 7-32. Measurements of the lighter egg in 
the clutch are given first. The shells of all 
are rough and slightly granulated. 
Golden Eagles are in this section growing 
fewer and fewer each year, owing to the num- 
bers of them that are killed by the sheep herd- 
ers, who shoot them on every occasion in pay- 
ment for the numbers of lambs taken each year 
by these birds. 
O.&O. XII. Jun. 1887 p. V6- JrT. 
