THE GOLDEN EAGLE 19 



this nest is now tenantless, for I have not seen the eagles 

 near. 



The Golden Eagle is not, I think, inclined to choose 

 a nesting site because of its inaccessibility, for I have 

 known an eyrie to be placed almost on the ground ; and 

 there is on record an instance of an old woman once walk- 

 ing into an eagle's nest and carrying off the eggs in her 

 apron. Often a ledge seems to be chosen from the fact 

 that a sapling birch or rowan is growing on it, and this is 

 utilised as a support for the foundations of the eyrie. 

 That such a tree is called upon to stand a considerable 

 strain is realised when it is stated that an eyrie may attain 

 a width of from five to six feet. A certain pair of eagles 

 have been singularly unfortunate in their nesting of late. 

 A heavy storm of wet snow broke down the eyrie which 

 they had occupied for many years in succession. The 

 eagles thereupon moved to an ancient home of theirs in a 

 rock hard by, but ill-fortune still pursued them, for a large 

 heather fire on the hillside beneath burnt so fiercely that it 

 ran up the eagles' rock and completely gutted the eyrie. The 

 eagles now decided to trust their treasures to the care of 

 a tree once more, and constructed a new eyrie on a fu* near 

 their fallen nest. The nest was built and the eggs laid, 

 but it is probable that the foundation of the eyrie was 

 faulty, and that one of the equinoctial gales overthrew it. 

 At all events, it was found lying on the heather, and the 

 broken eggs beside it. The stalker who made the dis- 

 covery told me that the dried-up remnants of yolk showed 

 that incubation was not far advanced, so it is possible — 

 though I think unlikely — that the eagles built a new nest 

 and laid a second clutch of eggs in another part of the 

 forest. 



It is, perhaps, unjust to condemn from circumstantial 

 evidence alone, but I have a shrewd suspicion that the 

 eggs of the Golden Eagle are sometimes stolen by the 



