22 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



I first tempted him with choice morsels from a grouse in 

 the nest, and then offered him a piece of banana skin, 

 which he swallowed philosophically. This bird was in a 

 neighbourhood much infested by ants, and during the 

 time I watched him many of these aggravating insects 

 were crawling up and down his legs. Beyond regarding 

 them with an intent and curious stare, however, the eagle 

 in no way tried to rid himself of the ants, for he seemed 

 to regard them as one of the annoying necessities of exist- 

 ence. A butterfly flitting near interested him, and the 

 movements of a hind in the wood below also distracted 

 his attention for a while, but he betrayed for the most part 

 a bored expression, and once yawned heavily. As I was 

 leaving, his mother suddenly appeared over the rock 

 bearing in her talons a grouse for the youngster's mid-day 

 meal. The eaglet at once became most excited and 

 called repeatedly, but the parent bird, on seeing me, shot 

 up into the air and, to the intense annoyance of her child, 

 disappeared from sight. 



The range of prey brought to the eyrie by a pair of 

 Golden Eagles during the nesting season is great. The 

 two staple articles of food, however, are the Red Grouse 

 and the Blue Hare, though where rabbits are plentiful 

 they are also brought to the nest in numbers. One never 

 sees an entire hare at the eyrie, only the haunches, so 

 that possibly the head and body are consumed by the 

 parent bird on the spot where the victim was captured. 

 Curiously enough, I have never found the remains of a 

 ptarmigan in an eyrie, which is the more noteworthy 

 from the fact that some of the eagles I have studied do 

 their hunting as much on ptarmigan ground as on grouse 

 moors. I have seen the tail of a squirrel in an eyrie, and 

 also on one occasion the remains of a stoat. Sometimes 

 small birds, such as the Meadow Pipit, are brought as food 

 for the young. Deer, calves, and lambs are taken also, 



