Our Birds of Prey; Or, the Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of Canada (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...States, being met with southward to about 35. Northward it ranges to the Arctic coast and beyond. The Golden Eagle delights in solitude; it universally selects for its nesting site some almost, if not absolutely, inaccessible situation, generally far from the dwelling of man. Here, in some towering ledge of moss-covered rock, it constructs its nest and rears its eagle-brood, year after year for great--though unknown--periods of time. VVe have heard wonderful stories of the great age to which some pairs of these birds have lived, and nests have been pointed out to us which were said to have been occupied regularly, by the same individuals, during upwards of one hundred years. But who has not heard such stories? Possibly in some such out-of-the-way situations as the sub-alpine recesses of the Rocky Mountains, where the foot of man seldom treads, some of these birds may attain to this age, and return regularly to the same nest. But in Canada and the bordering United States we may venture to state that to-day there are few places where the Golden Eagle could retain his eyry, for even the space, of a few years, without being discovered and destroyed. The oldest bird of this species which has come under my notice is that figured on Plate XVII. This individual is known to have lived for thirty-five years in confinement, and was when captured between three and five years old. Its death was brought about by a gathering in the throat, and at a time when the bird was in full vigor and had the prospect before him of a very old age. Throughout his whole captivity he tamed but little, and there were few besides his keeper, Mr. Passmore, who could approach him. He evinced a special antipathy to children, and particularly to babes in the arms of nurses...