8 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



At our approach, and in order to avoid us, the latter stag 

 moved, with his hinds, across in the direction Avhence 

 came the excited, almost frenzied roarings of the " royal." 

 I realised that a fight must ensue, and sure enough out of 

 the darkness came almost immediately the crash of antler 

 against antler borne across to us on the stillness of the 

 evening air, though the combatants themselves were 

 hidden by the night. For some minutes we heard blow 

 after blow repeated in rapid succession — until there was 

 sudden quiet and we realised that the vanquished had 

 taken his departure. And now there was but one stag 

 roaring out defiance into the gloom, and the voice was not 

 the hoarse voice of our " royal," but the deep mellow call 

 of his adversary and conqueror. Later on, as we neared 

 our journey's end, the sky lightened eastward and the pale 

 moon showed herself above the brow of the hill. Gradu- 

 ally increasing in the intensity of her rays she mounted 

 higher, and soon sought out, and illuminated, even the 

 shade of the veteran pines which cluster like so many 

 sentinels at the foot of this great glen. 



Though the eagle remains constant to his mate through- 

 out the year it is not often that one sees the birds hunting 

 in pairs. On one occasion, however, an eagle and his mate 

 were moving close together over a hill -face. Ptarmigan 

 scattered before them in every direction, but the leading 

 eagle pursued and struck down one of the fugitives. With- 

 out heeding the falling ptarmigan he passed on, but his 

 mate, stooping earthwards, seized the prc}^ before it had 

 fallen many yards and continued on her flight, carrying 

 the ptarmigan in her talons. It is, I think, extraordinary 

 how rarely an eagle is seen to capture prey. Time after 

 time he is seen good-naturedly, as it were, pursuing a covey 

 of grouse or ptarmigan, which I imagine are quite unable 

 to see the faintest traces of humour in the situation, but 

 usually, just as he appears about to strike, he swerves 



