212 Golden Eagle 



a blue hare, and three lambs, and not one of them had been dead 

 twenty-four hours ! 



Meantime, the cock was foraging on his own account, and 

 though I didn't see him, I got some very recent news of his 

 performances. Clambering up the corrie on my way home, I ran 

 into the shepherd in charge of the beat. He had a large canvas 

 bag over his shoulder, which shepherds carry on the hill at this time 

 of the year ; they often hnd a dead ewe with a live Iamb, and then 

 they put the lamb into the bag and bring it home. With a little 

 management they can generally induce a ewe who has lost her own 

 lamb to adopt the orphan ; more rarely, they have to bring it up 

 by hand. However, that's the object for which the bag is carried. 

 Now, this particular bag had a large rent in it, and round about the 

 rent the canvas was very blood-stained. I casually asked the 

 shepherd how the bag had got into the wars, and this was his 

 story, which I have no doubt was perfectly accurate. 



On the previous day he had been out on the hills soon after 

 daylight. On one of the higher tops he found a dead sheep with a 

 live lamb ; he put the lamb into the bag and laid the bag by 

 a cairn, while he went down into the corrie below to see after 

 the sheep there. His road home lay over the top and past the 

 cairn where he left the lamb in the bag. When he reached the 

 cairn on his return, he found the following state of things ; there 

 was a large .rent in the bag, from which blood was exuding 

 freely ; the lamb, still inside the bag, had been torn open, and 

 the liver and heart removed. 



That was the work of the cock Eagle. As he came sailing over 

 the tops his eyes must have caught the bag ; probably the 

 unfortunate lamb gave a kick inside and made the bag move. This 

 caused the Eagle to come down for a nearer inspection. Having 

 satisfied himself what the bag contained, he tore it open and 

 proceeded to break up the lamb. 



When the eggs hatched, and the chicks were old enough to be 

 left to themselves, the hen would join the cock in providing food, 

 and there would be four mouths instead of two, and the rate of 

 supply would be doubled. 



It is difficult to estimate accurately the damage this one family 

 would do to the sheep-farmer. There were plenty of late lambs 

 this spring, so that that source of food would be well within their 

 reach till the beginning of June, or nearly a month from the time I 

 examined the nest. If we only allow one lamb a day, that would 

 give a total of thirty, but I think that the lambs consumed and 

 wasted would far exceed this number. However, let us accept 

 thirty as the figure. Can anyone say, in these days of scarcity of 

 supplies of all kinds, mutton amongst others, that it is justifiable 

 to allow Eagles to nest and remain unmolested on a sheep-farm, 

 where their food is, in the main, made up of lambs, of which they 

 take a daily increasing toll ? 



