32 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



links Aviemore in Inverness-shire with Braemar in Aberdeen- 

 shire. At the top of the pass where the river Dee has its 

 origin I rested awhile, and soon I saw my friend the eagle 

 sailing, in the teeth of the cold northerly breeze, across 

 the hill face of Ben Mac Dhui. All at once he hesitated 

 for a moment in his flight, then closing his wings shot 

 earthward, but checked himself and moved forward again. 

 A thick mist was rolling up, so that I was unable to follow 

 the eagle beyond the point where he entered the cloud. 

 I was anxious to see what had been the cause of his sudden 

 pause and stoop, and on turning the glass on to the spot, 

 I saw a herd of stags looking up uneasily towards the 

 eagle. The bird in its passing had seen the herd and had 

 stooped playfully just to bring the beasts to the alert. A 

 few hours later I met a stalker, and on my relating the 

 episode to him, he told me that an eagle — ^in all probability 

 the same bird — had been seen a few days before to drive a 

 herd of deer before it up a hillside by swooping down at 

 them repeatedly. This manoeuvre caused a good deal of 

 inconvenience to a stalker who was also after these same 

 stags, for the eagle was driving the deer in a direction less 

 favourable for the stalk. 



From the following incident which was related to me, 

 it would appear that a single roebuck has more courage 

 than a whole herd of stags. An eagle, sailing over a hill- 

 side, spied a roe feeding, and swooped do\^ii on the animal. 

 The roe, far from showing alarm, stood erect on his hind 

 legs and beat out vigorously with his fore-feet with great 

 anger. The eagle thereupon turned its attentions to a 

 herd of stags which were grazing near. The red deer at 

 the first " stoop " of the eagle thought discretion to be 

 the better part of valour and moved quickly off over the 

 hill. One can imagine that after the incident there was 

 one very proud roebuck in the forest. Once on Ben 

 Alder an eagle was seen to hover above a herd of deer and 



