GOLDEN EAGLE. 221 



common as that bird. It also breeds in a few districts 

 in Ireland. 



The Golden Eagle loves the high and rugged moun- 

 tain peaks of the Highlands, and it is there he makes 

 his home, not on the sea-girt cliffs like his relation, 

 the Erne — though occasionally he is found there, too 

 — but away up on the bare and rugged face of some 

 awful precipice, upon a ledge sheltered by an over- 

 hanging rock, with an uninterrupted view of the sur- 

 rounding country, there he places his nest. The same 

 cliff is resorted to year by year, for the birds ap- 

 parently pair for life, but they seem to have several 

 nests, which they use in turn ; repairing and relining 

 them before use. The nest is made of sticks and 

 branches of heather, and lined with dried ferns and 

 tufts of grass. 



The proud flight of the king of birds is indeed a 

 sight which once seen will not easily be forgotten. 

 I once and once only witnessed it some years ago 

 when climbing near the foot of Ben Lawers in Perth- 

 shire, and recall now the grand and majestic image 

 of the bird as he first caught my eye, now hovering 

 for a moment and now slowly sailing onwards till he 

 was gradually lost to my view. 



The amount of food consumed by these birds and 

 their young is enormous. Tales are told of men who 

 have stocked their larder through the spring and 

 summer months with game carried off from the eyrie. 

 In one season the Golden Eagle has been known to 

 carry off thirty-five lambs from^a Highland sheep-farm, 

 and the remains of as many as three hundred ducks 

 and forty hares have been found in the eyrie of one 

 in Germany. 



The bird receives its name Golden Eagle from the 



