Northern Observations of Inland Birds 17 



It is a curious fact that birds and beasts that have 

 never before seen an eagle instantly recognize this bird 

 as a fierce and terrible foe, and seeing the king of birds 

 overhead they flee in the utmost fear for the nearest 

 shelter. A golden eagle passed over a Norfolk covert 

 some years ago, only to be shot down by a keeper, and 

 this man described how his attention was drawn to the 

 presence of the great bird of prey by the behaviour of 

 other birds. He first saw a pair of magpies make for a 

 dense thorn bush, from the secure thickets of which they 

 churred and chattered with the utmost resentment. The 

 pheasants, he said, were flying in all directions, crowing 

 loudly, while there was a great disturbance among the 

 small song birds. Approaching to investigate he saw 

 the eagle as it glided over a pine fringe, and shot it dead. 



The birds of Norfolk, among which the pheasants 

 were at any rate resident — having been hatched and reared 

 on the premises, and probably the same appHed to the 

 magpies and the majority of the song birds — had certainly 

 never seen an eagle before, nor had their fathers or their 

 grandfathers, yet harking back from their remote ancestry 

 came the inherited fear of the king of birds, whom they 

 recognized far off and at once fled for their lives. 



It is not surprising that the birds and beasts of our 

 Scottish hills fear the eagle even more than they fear man 

 himself. The eagle is a far older foe than man — indeed 

 it is only recently that man has counted as an enemy of 

 any consequence, whereas since time began the monarch 

 in the heavens has stood for most wild creatures as the 

 death's-head of fear. Moor game are far more afraid 

 of eagles than they are of peregrines, which is rather 

 curious, as the peregrine is certainly the more deadly in 

 pursuit. The fact that the eagle is so much feared would 

 seem to suggest that he is Nature's chosen monarch 

 among birds, and his less kingly characteristics may be 



