30 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



of white on either wing, and from the fact of its having 

 the basal three-fourths of the tail white, while only the 

 remaining fourth is a rich brown. So marked is this 

 feature that the young has obtained the distinct name of 

 Ring-tailed Eagle. 



The age at which a young eagle reaches maturity is 

 doubtful. Booth put this period at five or six years, which 

 does not appear to be excessive when the longevity of the 

 eagle is taken into consideration, for it seems to be a 

 general rule that the longer lived the bird, the more slowly 

 does it reach its prime ; and the Solan Goose, which prob- 

 ably does not exceed or even reach the age of an eagle, takes 

 quite five years to assume the full nesting plumage. It is 

 true that the age which the eagle attains in the wild state 

 must remain largely a matter for conjecture, but there is 

 an instance of one having lived 104 years in captivity. 



Though the eagle has no enemy worthy of his steel, 

 yet there are adversaries which, though impotent as 

 individuals, are still able to cause the King of Birds a 

 good deal of annoyance when they attack in jostling 

 crowds. Chief among these annoying adversaries is the 

 Grey or Hoodie Crow. The hoodie has its home in the 

 wild deer forests, where the stalkers are unwilling to molest 

 it, and it uses every opportunity of mobbing the eagle. 

 It must be a humiliating and unenviable position to be 

 swooped at by a score of yelling black pests, but the eagle 

 under such circumstances has never been known to forget 

 his position as being of royal blood. With ease he might 

 pursue and strike down, one after the other, the Grey 

 Crows, but he never betrays by the least sign or move- 

 ment that he is even aware of their presence. With a 

 young eagle, however, the case is different, and I once saw 

 such a bird driven to take shelter in a wood by the re- 

 peated attacks of the hoodies. Even after the object 

 of their hostility was perched on a dead branch the crows 



