Nov., I9O41 THE CONDOR I67 and so close that one can nearly reach the upper while standing in the lower nest. The upper nest is on a projecting spur of rock, and was built in x9o2 but never occupied; the lower is in a corner formed by natural cleavage, and it is an immense structure of sticks, grass, Spanish bayonet, and cornstalks--a very old nest, but until this year long unoccupied. Ever since 1898 I have made three or four trips to these nests each spring at intervals of two or three weeks, but although birds were frequently seen, all my efforts were fruitless until March x2th of this year, when my patience and perse- verence had their reward, and I had the very great pleasure of taking from the lower nest of the two a set of eggs which I believe to be the largest eagle's eggs on record. This was the first time eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) had nested in the canyon since ?897- It was evident that they were in the vicinity for at least one was near by on every trip that I made, but always high in air and generally to the southward. My first trip to "Spook" Canyon this year was later thau usual. No birds were seen in the vicinity, and the nests appeared as usual. I had carried a big coil of rope up the hill to the first and back again, and had commenced the ascent of the ledge to the others with reluctance, tully prepared for my usual disappoint- ment, but this time the Fates were with me. When I was within a few feet of the lower nest, only separated from it by a projeeting ledge of rock which hid it from view, there was a wild flutter of wings, and the biggest and blackest eagle that I ever saw sailed out from almost under my nose and glided away across the canyon. It is quite pleasing to have little surprises like that when one crawling up a slippery, moss-covered ledge, but that sort of surprise did not trouble me much. The eggs were a greater and more intere,ing one, and in another minute I was sitting in the nest chuckling to myself over my find, and wondering what the eagle would do if she returned. But she lett me in peace, and it is perhaps fortunate for some o[ us that our Aquilan friends do not come back to us at times. The eggs seemed pretty large to me while I was packing them, but it was not until they were placed beside others of my series that I realized how much beyond the average they were in size. I can find no published record of anything at all approximating them, and measurements that I have been able to obtain of large eggs in the collections of many well-known ornithologists fall far short of their dimensions. Abnormal eggs are not so common even among the smaller birds as to be uninteresting, and among the Raptores they are rare--seemingly less so, however, among the eagles (Aquila) for with them one egg much larger than the others in a set is rather frequently met with, but for both eggs to be of abnormal size is rare indued. Major Bendire and Mr. Davie give the average size of the egg of the golden eagle as about 2.93 by 2.3o inches. The largest set of which I have been able to obtain measurements out of about 3oo sets in the collections of Messrs. C. W. Cran- dall, J. L. Childs, A.M. Ingersoll, A. W. Jonnson, J. B. Preston, A. E. Price, Wil- liam Steinbeck, and H. R. Taylor, and in my own series, is a remarkable shaped set in the collection of Mr. A. W. Johnson,/taken in Spain, and measuring 3.26 by 2.34, and 3.23 by 2.34 inches respectively. Mr. Johnson also informs me that he has a record of a Scotch taken egg, now in Eng!aud , measuring 3.26 by 2.55 inches. These three eggs and one in a set of two in Mr. Price's collection meas- uring 3.23 by 244 inches, are the largest eggs I have so far heard of, and they are the only ones that exceed 3.2o inches in length. Mr. Johnson, whose large series contains besides his California sets, many from Scoffand, Spain, Lapland, Bulgaria and other countries, writes me that he finds an egg that measures 3.IO in length very large. Eggs above 3.?5 are very except-
