28 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



in maintaining its balance, but as its confidence increased, 

 so did its power of flight. I imagined, from my previous 

 experience of first flights, that the eagle would gradually 

 descend, and would come to earth somewhere on the 

 opposite hill face, but, on the contrary, it maintained 

 its level well, and made off, powerfully and easily, up the 

 glen until lost to view round a bend in the burn. A few 

 days later I visited another eyrie, also on a rock. The 

 nest was empty, but there were ample signs that the 

 youngster had left only a short time previously, and as 

 we stood beside the nest he sailed heavily across the strath 

 and alighted 200 yards from us on the hillside opposite. 

 I wished to secure some photographs of him, and com- 

 menced a careful stalk, but I had reached a point still 

 100 yards from him when he rose and flapped his 

 way down the glen. For over an hour I pursued him back- 

 wards and forwards, but although his flights were less 

 than half a mile — he had obviously had little practice, 

 and there were no air currents to buoy him up — he never 

 permitted of a nearer approach than 50 yards. 



For some time after they leave the nest the young 

 eagles remain with the parent birds, by which they are 

 initiated into the mysteries of capturing the timid hare 

 and the quick-flying grouse. All that summer they hunt 

 together, but during the opening months of the new year, 

 if not before, the parent eagles turn on their offspring and 

 drive them from the glen where they spent the earliest 

 days of their life. Mr. Abel Chapman relates the follow- 

 ing extraordinary occurrence from Spain. He shot a 

 Serpent Eagle, and in this bird found the almost entire 

 remains of a young nestling Golden Eagle — a thing almost 

 unbelievable were it not for the authority and standing of 

 the writer. The eagles in Spain seem to be similar to 

 those in this country as regards their habits. The eggs 

 are, as here, laid in mid-March, but if report is correct, 



