Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-04-27
THE NATIONAL BIRD.
~ High-sOaring Eagls--Ths Bird Of Free
dom--His HOme--How He Is Captured.

orat, writing from Fort KeOgh, Mon
tana, says: Very little has been said
81 written concerning the greatest of
All birds, the American eagle. This
must be because really very little is
known of him or his habits. An eagle
is a strange bird, anyhow. Not only Is
he the most unsocial of living creatures,
but he even carries this popularity so
far as to kick his own youngsters out of
the home nest Just as soon as they are
able to care for themselves. This
much, however, should be said to his
oredit-that he is most watchful and
attentive during the incubation, soaring
high and low, on guard, like a sentinel,
forever on the alert to protect mother
and young from possible danger of any
description. He is a most excellent
provider in securing animal food for
the young eaglets, who early acquire a
tastO For such delicacies.
The limit of an eagles age is one of
those things no fellow can find out. In
the geological Gardens at Vienna is
4 an old customer who has been a cap
tive ia years. There is no mistake
, about the date, for record of his ex-
istence and confinement from year to
year has been faithfully kept, the first
page in this interesting dairy antedat-
ing our own revolutionary war by some
two or three years. This patriarch of
his species was, no doubt an old bird
when Napoleon 1. was q boy.
The finest specimen Of the species we
4 have in the northwest is what is popu-
Larry known as the golden eagle. He
Is really not golden ut all. but rather a
copper brown. To come down to facts,
the plumage of the bird is a dark brown
color. The "tibia and tarsus," or leg
bones and feet, are covered thickly with
feathers to the toes, which feathers
have a golden brown tint that has given
rise to the "'nomen" of this particular
species. The cOlOring also extends to
the head and neck feathers, which.
glinting in a bright and slanting sun
shine, give the bird a charming golden
tint. The golden eagle builds his eyrie
among the most inaccessible cliffs of
the Cascade range and Rocky Mountain
chain. Be is also found in the Big
Horn mountains, and here it is the
Crow Indians go in search of plumage,
which to them is the ne plus ultra of
decoration and delight. His natural
home, however, Is amid the recesses of
the great Yellowstone National Park.
Tourists have found him out, and now
ordinary mOrtals traversing the sublime
and lofty waits of the majestic grand
canyon of the Yellowstone can see far
below them, perched on pinnacles and
towers of wOndrOus beauty, the great
american eagle in his true home. For
years this region of fire and geysers has
been Stunned by the red man. and only
of late has 1t become known to the
white race. Driven from solitude to
solitude by the encrOachments of civil
ization, this wary bird of nature sought
! out the most inaccessible and remote
portion of the northwest, amidst the
solemn grandeur and lonely wilds of the
Grand Canyon, but ut last, even there,
he has been discovered and followed by
enterprising mankind. After stunning
humanity and hunting security amid
the utmost recesses of the park. adj
vancement al civilization have sought
the eagle out, and now he must seek a
home elsewhere.
just why the eagle should have been
selected as the "hemblem of this blarst-
ed" country is hard to say. We have
golden, black, bald, gray, and white
eagles, but 1 think the gray is gener-
ally accepted as the national bird. As
a rule he is the most ferOcious, blood
thirsty, cruel, and unmerciful of all
creatures that run or fly. As a chicken
thief an eagle has no equal, not ex-
cepting the accomplished colored gen
tleman from the south, but the eagle
certainly goes step further in adding
cruelty to thieverv, which can be well
borne out by any one who has ever seen
the rascal cOOlly crush the life out of
an animal or bird once within the
power of his talons. No matter how
hhe victim may shrek, howl, vail, or
squirm, with the utmost cOmpOsure
this typical bird of freedom fortunes
and tears the unfortunate prey, and
seems to take a fierce delight in pro-
longing the suffering. But when the
victim has quoted down and ceases to
resist, then, with one powerful blow of
its hooked beak, the throat is severed
as, with dissecting knife, and the car
c IS borne off TO the eyre for the young
eaglets to feast upon
In this altitude when the land and
rivers are locked In the embrace of
winter, no fish to be had and no birds
or animals to pOunce upon, this mon
arch of mountain sOItudes descends to
the valleys and river bottoms in quest
of veal and mutton, or even carrion
,when the former is not to he had. In
Grant county, Ore, during the past
winter, one herder lost no less than
nine young lambs in a single day by
depredating eagles. Soaring at vast
height, and with an extraordinary
power of vision, the eagles modus
operandl IS to select a victim, and then
after circlincr ahOnt two on. three times