NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 73 



full on his back and neck. He passed us within forty yards, and 

 almost ere we had time to turn our heads he was at the foot of 

 the glen, nearly half a mile distant. Then a pair of Peregrine 

 Falcons, which had their eyrie on the cliff above our heads, swept 

 after in pursuit, and were seen swooping and dashing at the Eagle, 

 the one relieving the other, until they almost drove him to the 

 ground. On seeing this I thought, " Can he be the king'?" 



'* Fain would T know (if beasts have any reason), 

 If Falcons killing Eagles do commit a treason?" 



— ClelancVs " Hallo my fancy.'" 



As if struggling with his degradation, the Eagle again rose upwards 

 in gradually widening circles, avoiding the oft-recurring swoops 

 of his tormentors, much- in the same undignified way that the 

 Hooded Crow avoids those of the Kestrel — viz., by half- turning 

 on his side in the air. At last, after reaching a considerable 

 elevation, he disappeared round a shoulder of the hill, no doubt 

 to retrace his flight to his eyrie, amid the crags of the cold grey 

 stony mountain, which rises at the head of the glen. Though 

 all this took place in an infinitely less space of time than the 

 description of it has occupied, it was a sight never to be forgotten, 

 and even now I seem to hear the great rush of his wings in that' 

 lonely Highland glen. Several times I had seen Eagles at toler- 

 ably close quarters, but never before had I witnessed the immense 

 power, the irresistible rush, of an Eagle's flight when cleaving the 

 air at full speed. 



WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 



HALIAETUS A LB WILL A {Linnaeus). 



This species, which was equally persecuted at one time with the 

 last, is now likewise protected, but its numbers are not equal to 

 those of the "Mountain Eagle." The north coast of the county 

 is perhaps most frequented by them, though on certain cliffs on the 

 west coast, as well as on inland lochs, they are also found breed- 

 ing. The fact that they are a scarcer species in this part of 

 Scotland may perhaps in part be accounted for by their disposi- 

 tion to wander, during the winter, far southward from their, 

 breeding haunts, and their consequent liability to be shot, trapped, 

 poisoned, or otherwise destroyed. Doubtless this wandering habit, 



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