WHITE-TAILED SEA-EAGLE. 67 



ger from the fragments which are loosened by the cord, 

 and the difficulty of keeping his face and hreast from 

 the ragged points that project from the cliff. Birds 

 have feelings as well as men, and those of the eagle are 

 doubtless acute, for the old birds wheel and scream 

 along the face of the rock for many days in succession, 

 and as by this time the summer is far advanced, they 

 form no new nest. 



When the eyry is more directly accessible, a person 

 may descend into it and destroy its contents. Some- 

 times it is so placed that a good rocksman might make 

 his way to it without the aid of a rope ; and I had two 

 eaglets which were removed from the nest in this man- 

 ner by my father's shepherd. I myself, not the most 

 intrepid clamberer in the world, have been within three 

 yards of an eagle's nest, and have seen the old bird 

 gazing upon me as I carried my head over the edge of 

 a precipice, several hundred feet in height. 



Unless in the breeding season, eagles usually fly in 

 pairs, and, unless for some weeks after the young come 

 abroad, it is rare to find more than two together. At 

 the commencement of the breeding season, three may 

 be seen in mutual proximity, but in this case two of 

 them are bent on hostilities ; and when carrion is on 

 the hill, or on the shore, from two to fi^re may be oc- 

 casionally observed, but I do not remember to have 

 ever seen more than the latter number together ; where- 

 as of ravens, birds which usually go in pairs, hundreds 

 sometimes collect to feast upon a stranded animal of the 

 cetaceous family. 



There seems to me no reason for believing that this 

 eagle has a very acute sense of smell, especially as 



