230 HALIAETUS ALBICILLA. 



once saw, while shooting on Rona's Hill, a pair of Skua 

 Gulls chase and completely beat off a large Eagle : the Gulls 

 struck at him several times, and at each stroke he screamed 

 loudly, but never offered to return the assault. He was sailing 

 along close to the steep part of the cliffs near the breeding- 

 places of these Gulls, and was most probably looking out for a 

 repast, M'hicli he would doubtless have secured had he not 

 received the hint that his company could be dispensed with. 

 I have also seen from ten to fifteen of the Arctic Gulls attack 

 an Eagle and beat him from their habitations." From the 

 attacks of quadrupeds it is perfectly secure, and if a weasel 

 ever destroyed an eagle, the story has been repeated so often 

 by travellers and other romancers, that no credit can now be at- 

 tached to it. Its great enemy is man, who destroys its nest, 

 breaks its eggs, kills or carries off its young, traps it in various 

 ways, or by lying concealed in a covered pit or hut, shoots it 

 as it feeds on the carcase laid out to attract it. 



Owing to the persecution to which it is thus subjected, it 

 has been almost entirely extirpated in England. In the sou- 

 thern division of Scotland, or from the borders to the Friths of 

 Forth and Clyde, it is probable that half a dozen pairs are not 

 now to be found. In the middle division, it is still rare ; but 

 in the northern, and especially in the Hebrides, it is in many 

 places not uncommon. Stragglers, however, especially young 

 birds, are now and then killed in all parts of the country, even 

 in the south of England ; and, although its numbers have thus 

 been reduced, it is probable that it will never be entirely extir- 

 pated. It does not appear to be necessarily or essentially mari- 

 time, but rather to frequent the sea-coast because of the facility 

 of finding secure resting-places on the cliffs ; for it is met with 

 in the interior, even in Braemar and about Lochlagan. But 

 in such places it is less frequent than the Golden Eagle, which, 

 on the other hand, also breeds on maritime rocks. In Orkney, 

 as I am informed by Mr Forbes of South Ronaldshay, it breeds 

 on several of the headlands ; and Dr Laurence Edmondston has 

 favoured me with the following account of it as observed in 

 Shetland. 



" This, I believe, is the only species of Eagle that breeds in 



