ORNITHOLOGIST 
— AND — 
OOLOGIST. 
$1.00 per 
PUBLISHED BY THE FRANK BLAKE WEBSTER COMPANY. 
Single Copy 
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ESTABLISHED MARCH, 1875. 
10 cents. 
Vol. XVIII. 
HYDE PARK, MASS., JULY, 1893. 
No. 7. 
Canadian Eagle. 
It was during the recent winter that, being 
in Montreal, Canada, I had the good fortune 
of acquiring from the dean of a medical in- 
stitution a grand specimen of the Golden 
Eagle ( Aquila Chrysaetos). 
The facts of the procural of this Eagle are 
the following : It was shot on Montagne 
Rougemont (Johnson Mountain) in a sugar 
bush owned by the above dean and operated 
by his habitant or farmer. 
This mountain is situated at a distance of 
36 miles from Montreal and 3 miles from 
St. Cesaire, Rouville County, P.Q. Johnson 
Mountain is a bold, rugged, wooded emi- 
nence rising to a height of perhaps two 
thousand feet. It, however, seems higher on 
account of its being almost solitary amongst 
vast level stretches of farms, for which this 
section is noted and which extend miles in 
all directions. 
But to continue. This eagle was shot the 
1 8th of March, 1893. I received it frozen 
and mounted it a few days afterwards. 
I here append a few measurements which 
I took after the thawing out of the bird. 
They were taken as carefully as possible, 
from the sole fact, as you perhaps know, that 
Eastern specimens of the Golden Eagle are 
few and far between : 
Sex, female ; weight, 10 lbs. 14 oz. ; extent, 
84 inches (7 feet) ; wing, 27 inches; length 
(beak to tip of tail), 3 5 inches; length 
(beak to end of claw), 34 inches; tail, 15 
inches; thigh, 7 y 2 inches; tarsus, 5 inches; 
toe (middle,) inches; toe (hind) ii/% 
inches; claw (inner), 2% inches; claw 
(hind), 2^3 inches; mandible (upper, with 
cere), 3 inches. 
One can judge of the strength of such a 
bird when the tape, stretched around its 
thigh, indicates 7 inches, and around its head 
nine inches ; whereas the girth of the body 
around closed wings measures 27 inches. 
It is on close examination that you per- 
ceive just how those long, bear-like claws 
and powerful mandibles, combined with a 
powerful thick muscled raptoral body, and 
lastly that immense stretch of wings, can 
with ease make a Hare give its last squeak ; a 
Grouse whirr for the last time ; a stray Lamb 
carried exultingly upward ; and, as history 
sometimes tells us, a child left by its mother 
flown away with and devoured at leisure. 
The weight of a large Bald Eagle, of which 
I have measurements, was but 9 pounds; 
though in extent, with tape stretched across 
its wings, gave the grand spread of 7 feet 4 
inches. 
That Golden Eagles have for years past 
been breeding on this Canadian mountain, I 
doubt not, for on many a rocky crag could 
their eyries have been built and they have 
reared their young in safety from man ; for 
rarely are those crags inspected, if ever, by 
enterprising oologists or even ornithologists. 
Even that highly educated dean didn’t know 
whether it was a large Hawk or an immature 
Bald Eagle ! But the feathered tarsus plainly 
revealed its identity. Albert M. Roberts. 
Holyoke, Mass. 
Copyright, 1893, by Frank Blake Webster Company. 
O.& O.Vol.18, July, 1893 p.97 
Aquila chrysaetos. -The date of this combination is given in the A. 
. U. ‘ Cheek-List’ as Dumont, 1816, but I have met with several earlier 
references, the first being Aquila chrysaetos Spriingli, in Andrew’s 
Bnefe aus der Schweiz/ 1776, i 9 6.-Chas. W. Richmond, Washing- 
ton, D. C. Ank, XIX, Jan., 1902, p . 7 ? ^ 
