46 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



of a boulder, hoping that the grouse would in time emerge 

 once more into the open. As quickly as possible the 

 witness of the occurrence hurried to the spot, and found 

 the unfortunate grouse half-drowned in its hole owing 

 to the flow of the tide, seemingly preferring to meet its 

 death in this fashion, rather than to risk an encounter 

 with the eagle. 



It was, as I have said, largely owing to its fondness for 

 sheep and lambs, especially the latter, that the Sea Eagle 

 has had every man's hand directed against it along the 

 Western Highlands. It has been seen raising and dropping 

 young lambs merely for sport, just as its relative the 

 Golden Eagle passes its time with grouse and hares, rising 

 with them to a great height, dropping them from its 

 talons, and endeavouring to overtake and recapture them 

 before they reach the ground. 



I think that the White-tailed Eagle is a more carrion- 

 eating bird than the Golden Eagle, for whereas the latter 

 bird prefers to hunt its prey, the Sea Eagle seems to find the 

 carcase of a sheep, lying on the hillside, or thro^vn up by 

 the tide, equally appetising. Its feeding habits, too, are 

 not so cleanly ; even when it has captured a rabbit, it 

 often eats only the viscera, leaving the flesh untouched. 

 It preys, too, on various aquatic birds, such as gulls, 

 puffins, and guillemots, and in a specimen was once found 

 a puffin which had been swallowed whole. Even before 

 the eggs hatch out prey is sometimes brought to the nest 

 — a guillemot and two kittiwakes have been found in an 

 eyrie containing eggs only. Unlike the Golden Eagle it 

 undoubtedly does some of its hunting by night, and its 

 plunge into the sea after some unlucky fish has not in- 

 frequently been heard, the great form of the eagle passing 

 swiftly by in the gloom. The propensity of the Sea Eagle 

 for striking at fish of great size has sometimes ended 

 disastrously for the would-be captor. A Sea Eagle once 



