[4.] 1. Aquila Chrysaetos? The Golden Eagle.
Ge n u s . Aquila A n t iq .uob.u m . Cu v ie r .
Golden Eagle. P e n n . Arct. Zool., i., p. 225, No. 86.
White Eagle. I d em , i, p- 229, No. 90.
Falco fulvus. Lath. Ind., i.,p. 10, sp. 4.
Falco candidus. Id e m , i,, p. 14, sp. 17. ? variety.
The Calumet Eagle. L ew is & Clark. Joum., $c., iii., p. 55, No. 20.
Ring-tail Eagle. W ilson. Am. Om. vii., p. 13, pi. 55, f. 1. Young.
Falco fulvus. T em m in c k . i., p. 38. B u o n a p. Syn., p. 24.
Live specimen in the Z o o lo g ic a l Ga r d en s brought from the Rocky Mountains.
Eagle, No. 31. Hudson's Bay Company's Museum.
Kceoo. Creb I n d ia n s .
This powerful bird breeds in the recesses of the sub-alpine country which skirts
the Rocky Mountains, and is seldom seen farther to the eastward. It is held by
the aborigines of America, as it is by almost every other people, to be an emblem
of might and courage ; and the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle plume
as the most honourable ornament with which he can adorn himself. Its feathers
are attached to the calumets, or smoking pipes, used by the Indians in the celebration
of their solemn festivals, which has obtained for it the name of the Calumet
Eagle. Indeed, so highly are these ornaments prized, that a warrior will often
exchange a valuable horse for the tail feathers of a single eagle *. The strength
of vision of this bird must almost exceed conception, for it can discover, its prey
and pounce upon it from a height at which it is itself, with its expanded wings,
scarcely visible to the human eye. When looking for its prey, it sails in large
circles, with its tail spread out, but with little motion of its wings; and it often
soars aloft in a spiral manner, its gyrations becoming gradually less and less perceptible,
until it dwindles to a mere speck, and is at length entirely lost to the
view. A story is current, on the plains of the Saskatchewan, of a half-breed
Indian, who was vaunting his prowess before a band of his countrymen, and
wishing to impress them with a belief of his supernatural powers. In the midst of
his harangue an Eagle was observed suspended as it were in the air directly over
his head, upon which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which glistened brightly in the
sun, he called upon the royal bird to come down. To his own amazement, no less
than to the consternation of the surrounding Indians, the Eagle seemed to obey
* Lewis and Clark inform us that the Ricaras Indians have domesticated.the Eagle, in many instances, for the purpose
of procuring its plumage.
the charm, for instantly, shooting down with the velocity of an arrow, it impaled
itself on the point The Golden Eagolfe hisis swaieda ptoo nb !uild its nest on rocks or on very lofty trees, and
to lay two, or more rarely three, eggs of a soiled-white colour. It preys chiefly
on the young of the mountain sheep, fawns, hares, &c., and is scarcely ever
observed to feed on carrion. The American Golden Eagle has seldom been separated
by naturalists from the European one; but a nominal species has been
assigned to both countries, under the name of the Ring-tail, which is, in fact, the
young Golden Eagle, distinguished by the base of its tail being white until it
reaches its third year. The Ring-tails, probably owing to their being less wary,
are much oftener shot than the old birds, and I have not seen an American specimen
of the latter, although Prince C. Buonaparte mentions his having obtained
one from the Rocky Mountains along with several Ring-tails. Pennant and
Latham, on the authority of Mr. Hutchins, mention this bird as an inhabitant
of Hudson’s Bay ; but it is a very rare and casual visitant of the districts that
were frequented by the Hudson’s Bay fur-traders in Pennant’s time, and Mr.
Hutchins’s manuscript Notices, to which I have had access, evidently refer to the
F. leucocephalus. Even Pennant himself, who seems to have been Mr. Hutchins’s
guide in applying the scientific names to the Hudson’s Bay birds, has figured a
young Sea Eagle (F . albicilla) for the Golden Eagle in his British Zoology. The
White Eagle * mentioned by Du Pratz in the History of Louisiana was probably
a variety of the Golden Eagle, corresponding to the White Eagle f of the Swiss
Alps noticed by Brisson.
DESCRIPTION
Of a specimen, supposed to be under three years of age, shot by Mr. Drummond, in lat. 55°, on the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains, as it was in the act of pouncing upon a small dog.
C o l o u r .— The head and neck are covered by slender pointed feathers, which are white at
their bases, dusky-brown in their middles, and have yellowish-brown points. The general
colour of the plumage on the dorsal aspect is dull liver-brown, without spots or shadings, except
when some of the feathers are ruffled, and their white bases appear. The greater coverts and sca-
pularies are of a more faded brown than the rest of the upper plumage, and the quill feathers
are darker, approaching to blackish-brown. The base of the inner webs of the first six quill
feathers are white ; and on the seventh, eighth, and ninth, the white extends to both webs.
The wing underneath is hair-brown, with an imperfect white band on the bases of the sixth
and subsequent quill feathers. The tail is white at the base, blackish-brown towards the end,
and narrowly tipped with white. The brown occupies less space on the two middle feathers,
not exceeding one-sixth of their length, and is sprinkled with white. The outer feathers are
* P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 97- Falco candidus. L a t h . Ind., i, p. 15.
t Falco albus. Gm e l in . Syst., p. 257. F. cygneus. L a t h . Ind., i„ p. 14.