' GOLDEN EAGLE. 213 



with the spoil, when they were assailed by one of the eagles, 

 which repeatedly struck at them with her wing. In Forfar- 

 shire, a farmer in ascending to an eagle's nest, was encoun- 

 tered by the old bird, which had returned with food for the 

 young, and escaped only by throwing to her his bonnet, after 

 which she flew to the ground, and on returning was shot by 

 him. If any of the stories told respecting children that have 

 been carried off by eagles be true, it is probable that the feat 

 has been performed by this species. Should one of the birds 

 be shot during the breeding season, it has been observed that the 

 survivor generally procures a mate in a very short time, and that 

 even after the young have been hatched. The eggs are usually 

 two, sometimes only one, and very rarely three. They are infe- 

 rior in size to the egg of a domestic goose, of a broadly oval shape, 

 three inches in length, two inches and four-twelfths in breadth, 

 yellowish- white, clouded and spotted with light brown, some- 

 times white, with a few reddish dots. One in my possession, 

 which was taken from the oviduct, is pure white, but probably 

 it would have received some colouring matter, which is depo- 

 sited after the shell is completed, had the bird not been shot. 



The food of the Golden Eagle consists of the flesh of hares, 

 rabbits, lambs, fawns, moles, black-grouse, red-grouse, ptar- 

 migans, partridges, curlews, plovers, lapwings, and probably 

 other species. I have seen one carry off a lamb several weeks 

 old, and have been informed by the shepherds in the Hebrides 

 that it thus commits great havock in the beginning of summer. 

 One of them also told me that he had seen two eagles, but 

 whether of this or of the other species he did not know, attack 

 a doe in winter, which they would probably have destroyed had 

 he not interfered. Although it does not much frequent the 

 sea-shore, it does not disdain a dead fish, and in winter it often 

 eats carrion. I have seen several Golden Eagles hovering over 

 and around a dead sheep, and in the Hebrides they are often 

 shot on carcases placed near a covered pit in which the gunner 

 lies concealed. The substances which I have found in the 

 crops and stomachs of Golden Eagles from the Highlands that 

 were sent to the bird-stuftcrs in Edinburgh, were portions of 

 hares, ptarmigans, grouse, wool, and once a mole. 



