10 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



interest to realise how strong is the hereditary instinct 

 of dread felt towards the eagle, and in obedience to this 

 instinct grouse will cheerfully face in great numbers a 

 whole line of guns which must spell death to them, rather 

 than approach the locality where the eagle has been spied. 

 I was travelling on the Highland Railway recently, from 

 Inverness to Perth, and just at the county march, where 

 the line borders on the 1500 feet level, I saw a grouse 

 cross the line above the train, flying high and with a dis- 

 tinctive rocking flight. I was almost certain that an 

 eagle, and not the Highland express, was the cause of 

 alarm, and sure enough, on looking out of the opposite 

 window, I saw the enemy there sailing far off above the 

 top of a neighbouring hill. As well as striking down its 

 prey in mid air, the eagle at times captures, or attempts 

 to capture, grouse and ptarmigan on the ground, but that 

 it is not invariably successful in this, I think the following 

 incident will show. 



One winter's afternoon I watched a pair of eagles on a 

 grouse moor where they had been seen regularly for some 

 weeks. One of the eagles had apparently retired to roost 

 on a heather-clad hillside when a grouse which I disturbed 

 crossed the burn and alighted almost on the top of the 

 eagle. The latter immediately rose and made a stoop at 

 the grouse but missed its mark, striking itself, with the im- 

 pact of its descent, heavily against the hillside. Somewhat 

 dazed, the great bird thereupon rose, and mounting in 

 spirals made its way across the hill till it was lost to sight. 



The principal prey of the eagle in this country is the 

 Red Grouse, but where mountain hares are numerous on 

 the hillsides there is no doubt they are taken in preference 

 to the more active birds. There is one nesting site of a 

 pair of eagles that I Imow of — in the heart of a grouse moor 

 — where, every year that the birds visit the eyrie for the 

 purpose of nidification, the eggs are taken and sometimes 



