20 



Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



down the corrie towards us, making, apparently, for the 

 lower levels, and, as we watched, the move became a 

 general one, the birds passing at intervals in packs for a 

 matter of eight or nine minutes. The atmosphere was 

 quite clear, and there was not a living thing to be seen 

 which might account for their curious behaviour, but 

 about five minutes after the last bird had passed we saw 

 an eagle, flying low, coming towards us from the direction 

 of a distant glen. 



Doubtless the eagle was the cause of the behaviour of 

 the grouse, but we were much mystified as to how they 

 knew that the King of Birds was coming so long before 

 he actually appeared above the skyline. If we conclude 

 that the grouse had preconceived the coming of the bird 

 of prey, the incident is no more remarkable than many 

 other examples of preconception that we regularly come 

 across on the part of birds and beasts. 



It may indeed be that just as deer and hares move their 

 quarters to suit the wind an hour or so before the wind 

 actually changes its quarter, so grouse have some guarding 

 instinct against one of the foremost of their inherited 

 foes — the eagle 1 



Some time ago I shot a white hare at long range, and 

 saw it fall, but on looking up from reloading I saw the 

 animal speeding up the mountain face as nimbly as any 

 hare alive. Passing over a ridge in the direction he had 

 taken an hour or so later I found a dead hare, presumably 

 my hare, lying on a boulder and partly eaten. I thought 

 it was the work of a fox, for the hare had been dragged 

 roughly through the heather for a matter of forty paces, 

 but an eagle's feather and other indications proved 

 sufficiently convincing. 



The eagle knows as well as we do that Alpine hare is 

 not such good eating as grouse and young rabbit, yet on 

 certain bleak hills I have visited the number of white 



