AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 17 



little difficulty (for there was no depth of soil), we fixed the big stake 

 firmly above a very steep slope, some yards from the edge of tlie 

 rock ; then a stake for the little rope twenty yards to the left of us. 

 Having spliced the rope to the stake upon which I was to sit, and 

 tied myself in, explained all to the men, and agreed upon the signals, 

 I proceeded over the edge, which, to my horror, I found almost as 

 sharp as a knife, being a kind of mica-schist. I now felt how stupid 

 I had been in forgetting to bring the leathern tubes I had had 

 made; for the sharp edge, besides wearing the rope, caused great 

 friction and difficulty in hauling up. No sooner was I over the rock, 

 with the little rope in my right hand, than I saw the nest, with two eggs, 

 beautiful, and very diiferent from each other, about five feet to my left 

 as I faced the rock. I could just reach the ledge with my fingers 

 and unshod toes, and so, having cried " Stop," I hung, with the rope 

 bearing me backwards towards the abyss, in a position both cramping 

 from the muscular exertion required, and highly nervo-excitory from 

 the feeling of danger or insecurity, unfounded though it might have 

 been. On looking at the eggs in the nest I at once saw a hole in 

 one, as if the old bird had dug her claw into it in her hurry ; but on 

 further examination I found it had a young one in it just hatching, 

 and giving vent to low cries, which accounted for the high state of 

 " closking " in which I had found the mother. I reached the eggs 

 and put them in the box with tow, which I liad lashed under my 

 right arm, and I put some of the lining of the nest in my pocket. 

 It was very large, something like a Rook's highly magnified, and 

 lined ^vith a kind of Luzula, much of it quite green, and apparently 

 recently placed around: the middle was dried up*. About six feet 

 to my left, and with the embankment of sticks continued to it, was 

 another platform, with fresh stuff on it — perhaps a nest of last year, 

 or a roosting- place for the other bird. Ten or twelve yards to the 

 right, and not exactly on the same ledge, was another old nest. A 

 few white feathers (Ptarmigans') and white fur (Mountain Hares') 

 were all the remnants of prey that I saw. I was able to commu- 

 nicate with the men by shouting, as I was not more than six feet 

 from the top of the rock, and one of them had descended to the 

 edge. It was fortunate ; for had there been wind, as in the morning, 

 I could not have been heard ; nor, as it was, could I have been heard 

 further down. The little-rope signals had entirely failed. The eggs 



* This Luzula, which I believe to be L. sijlratica, grows plentifully on the damp 

 mountain-sides and ledges of rocks. The Eagles pluck and use the whole plant, 

 whicli is something like the top of a pine-apple ; and when dry, the leaves remind 

 one of Russian matting ; but they are not long as in specimens gathered in woods. 



c 



