i8 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



merely the result of his having degenerated with his 

 great antiquity. For the eagle is as ancient as the owl. 



Recently I was out on the Perthshire hills in the hope of 

 obtaining one or two brace of birds and as many white hares 

 as I could comfortably carry, when, mounting a ridge, I 

 noticed a golden eagle systematically quartering a small 

 glen a mile or so to the west. A very strong wind was 

 blowing at this point, and it was bitterly cold, and the 

 bird, flying at an altitude of from seventy to one hundred 

 feet, was hanging idly on the wind, wheeHng first up the 

 mountain face, then back into the gloom of the glen, 

 and in this way he very soon passed from sight. 



Up to this point the hares had been completely 

 unapproachable, rising ninety yards distant and running 

 clean away v/ithout even their customary backward 

 glance, but no sooner had the eagle passed out of sight 

 than I noticed a hare squatting closely under a boulder 

 about fifty yards distant. I made a detour so as to 

 approach him downhill, but arriving at the boulder 

 discovered that he had mysteriously vanished. Investi- 

 gation revealed a short burrow or seat running into the 

 peat on one side of the boulder, and thrusting in my 

 hand I at once touched the hare's hind legs, at which he 

 drew further in. I then discovered that the seat had an 

 outlet about four feet away, and thrusting my hand in 

 at that end I again touched him, and again he moved out 

 of reach. I was in the hope of forcing him to bolt, but 

 nothing would induce him to do so. 



Within eighty yards of the same place I noticed a 

 hare's seat under a peat bank, and on either side of it 

 the lip of the bank had subsided, forming a tunnel of 

 the kind to which mountain hares are very partial, the 

 animals generally seeking these shelters in the afternoon 

 during wild weather — hence one reason for the sudden 

 and mysterious disappearance of hares from the ground 



