MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 997 



been well worked put. and she must have said to herself, after 10 minutes of 

 vainly darting too and fro. " Tliis is a poor sort of game, and each time I get 

 near enough to make a grab, the beastly thing disappears under water and 

 where I dare not go, and now here it comes, making straight for this grassy bit, 

 where I have already had half a dozen shots at it. but it seems to see me in 

 time to got out uf the way. so let me see if I can do better by keeping to 

 the ground and grabbing the head the moment it shows above the water, if 

 near enough to the bank, as it generally is." 



What appears to me to be a case of very deep reasoning on the part of a 

 Golden Eagle {^.l. chri/suelus) was brought to my notice only a short time 

 ago. 



I took a half fledged eyass from the nest in the middle of June last. On 

 the 16th of July she had her first fly or rather a very poor attempt at one, 

 but once h iving half flown, half tumbled out of the nest, I made for her, on 

 a tree, she w:is always experimenting, and with the help of a strong bieeze, got 

 in some quite long flights, before the end of the month, till one day I lost all 

 trace of her, S3eing no signs of her the next day, 1 went up the hi 1 to some 

 cliffs, some 2 to S,O00 feet above my bungalow, and was soon attiacted ny her 

 call, and when I got round the spur, to my horror, I found her with 

 two wild ones and presumably her parents, which flew off as I approached. 

 Off sh ! went with them and after vainly chasing them frcm ridge to ridge, 

 I was on the point of giving up the job of getting her back as hopeless, but 

 I had fortunately taken my gun with me to shoot her, a crow to call her with, 

 en rotite, and as a last resort, thought I'd tiy peppering them, to get 

 them away from her, for they always circled round where she sat. I got to 

 wiihin fiU yards or so cf her and waited behind a rock, and as they passed 

 overhead I gave them a charge each, and both went off very much faster than 

 mine could follow, and as soon as they were gone, mine came down to me, 

 without any trouble. Since then, my bird was once away for 6 days and 

 came back of her own accotd, closely pursued by the wild ones giving her a 

 very poor time of it. 



I keep her always loose, but now she hardly dares to leave the bungalow, and 

 if she soars up to any height, she will suildenly be seen to drop, wiih closed 

 wings and make straight for the bungalow, and two specks dropping from the 

 heavens after her. On one occasion, one of them caught her up and gave her 

 a very i.asty whack and .sent feathers flying in all diiCsuons 



('nly a fortnight a^o, these very biids did their best to entice mine away, so 

 why this sudden change in behaviour towards her now ? Could they possibly 

 connect the charge of shot, they tach got into thtm. with her ? This is the 

 only explanation I can give, strange as it seems, and if this is the case, their 

 reasoning is certainly very sound. The jesses and bells could not be the 

 reason, as she had them on when she fii.st went off with them. 



Then again her returning to the bungalow, after being away for 6 days and 

 when in trouble with her parents, to my mind shows a certain amount of 



