134 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



to be deserted, possibly because they offer a smaller 

 amount of security. Occasionally a sea clift' is 

 selected ; and we have a vivid remembrance of an 

 eyrie in such a situation on the west coast of Skye, 

 more especially because through a rotten rope we 

 nearly lost our life in an attempt to reach it. The 

 nest of the Golden Eagle is a massive, well-made 

 structure — a pile of sticks and branches and pieces 

 of turf, lined with dry grass, moss, and tufts of green 

 plants, generally Luzula sylvatica. The two or 

 rarely three eggs are dirty white or very jDale blue 

 in ground colour, blotched and spotted with reddish 

 brown and lavender grey. Usually in each clutch 

 one egg is much more richly marked than the 

 other. In the last two eggs of the Golden Eagle 

 which we blew from Scotland this was very 

 noticeable, one of them being almost spotless. 

 Both parents assist in incubating them. This 

 Eagle sits very lightly, flying away from the nest 

 at once, and never, so far as our experience goes, 

 showing any inclination to attack a human intruder. 

 The eggs are often laid long before the snow is off" 

 the mountains, in March or early in April — a 

 circumstance which is fortunate, for the " collector " 

 is seldom so far afield as the Highlands until a 

 more genial season. 



