THE GOLDEN EAGLE 29 



the young birds leave the eyrie as early as June. One 

 eyrie measured was no less than eight feet deep ; it was 

 built of sticks, was lined with Esparto grass and adorned 

 with green ivy leaves and twigs of Abies pinsapo. 

 The nest is almost invariably placed on a crag in Spain, 

 a tree being rarely selected. However, Mr. R. B. Lodge 

 mentions that between Serajevo and Gravosa he saw a huge 

 nest of a Golden Eagle in a small tree not ten feet from 

 the ground. In Spain, too, a Golden Eagle has been known 

 to appropriate for itself a discarded eyrie of Bonelli's Eagle. 



In Scotland I once saw an eyrie in a comparatively 

 small birch tree, where the eagles successfully reared a 

 single young one despite the fact that the eyrie was only 

 a hundred yards from a right of way along which a number 

 of pedestrians passed. On the same tree occupied by a 

 pair of eagles was found, on one occasion, a jay's nest, 

 a dove's nest, and several nests of sparrows. I have more 

 than once seen Coal Titmice flitting unconcernedly around 

 an occupied eyrie, and imagine that they may even make 

 their nests in some of the holes near the foundations of 

 the eagles' nest. The eggs of the eagle are variable in 

 shape, but it may be said the dimensions vary from 3*23 

 by 2*59 to 2'85 by 2-16 inches. This is taking the average 

 of a large number of clutches. 



For some months after leaving the eyrie the eaglets 

 lack that gracefulness and command of flight which is 

 possessed by their parents. One October I watched a 

 young eagle of that year making its way over the plateau 

 of Lochnagar. A ptarmigan rose near the line of its 

 flight and it swerved off, appearing to have in its mind 

 the capture of the fugitive, but its efforts in that direc- 

 tion were indifferent and the ptarmigan made its escape 

 without difficulty. 



Quite apart from its inferior powers of flight, a young 

 eagle can be distinguished from its parents by a patch 



