AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 11 



like little flattened pine -apple tops. Once I saw this in a great 

 measure replaced by tufts of a kind of Carex or Nardus. The hollow 

 of the nest is never deep ; but whilst the eggs are unhatched it is often 

 pretty regular and sharp at the inner edge, and it is not more than a 

 foot from the back wall of rock, close to which the soft materials are 

 generally packed. There is little interlacing of the materials ; but the 

 whole structure, whilst it appears loose, is yet so firm that it scarcely 

 springs at all with the weight of a man. 



The nest is repaired each year ; and I have no doubt, from Wil- 

 lughby's description, that the one found in Derbyshire had been used 

 more than once. But it is usual for the same pair of Eagles to have 

 several favourite sites in different quarters ; and they frequently repair 

 them all before making a final choice of the one in which to lay their 

 eggs. What determines them it is difficult to say. One forester 

 thinks it is the way the wind blows when they are ready to lay ; 

 another, that the sight of a human being scares them. A third possible 

 and very singular cause has once occurred in my own experience : it 

 is the generation, in the lining of the nest of a preceding year, of 

 myriads of fleas, exactly like those that trouble mankind. I do not 

 know whether a fourth reason for giving up a favourite place may not 

 occasionally be a forcible ejectment by even a less power than man. 

 I have seen in a simple rock an old eyrie, which had been subsequently 

 occupied as a nursery by a Marten ; but I think there must have been 

 a previous desertion in such a case. Still a few of the best places are 

 inhabited uninterruptedly. I have seen one which it was said had 

 never been empty for fifteen successive years until four years ago ; but 

 it was again used in 1852. Some old shepherds have told me that they 

 and their fathers had seen two eyries relieve each other every two 

 years or thereabouts. The same birds wiU select very different situa- 

 tions. I am told of a pair that alternate between a crag quite im- 

 pregnable and a corner into which a child can climb. In these days an 

 altogether new place is rarely thought of. It is quite sufficient to visit 

 the four or five known stations in a district, in one of which the Eagle 

 will be found. Long experience had made many Highlanders believe 

 that the supply of Eagles was inexhaustible ; for if one of a pair was 

 killed, the survivor was sure to bring a fresh mate the next year ; but 

 most of these persons have by this time found out their mistake. 



The eggs are laid very early in the year, often with the country 

 under deep snow. The hen sits very close ; and, accordingly, that is 

 the sex which is most frequently murdered at this season ; but if any- 

 thing happens to her, the cock will take her place for a time, but not 

 so as to succeed in rearing the young, for he too is often slain in his 



