WHITE-TAILED SEA-EAGLE. 69 



In almost every district in the Highlands stories are 

 told of eagles that have carried away infants temporarily 

 left by their mothers in the harvest field or elsewhere ; 

 and it is probable that such an occurrence may have 

 taken place, although the evidence is usually imper- 

 fect. Sir Robert Sibbald states, that in Orkney " an 

 eagle seized a child, a year old, which its mother had 

 left, wrapped up in some clothes, at a place called 

 Houton-Head, while she went for a few moments to 

 gather sticks for firewood, and carried it a distance of 

 four miles to Hoia ; which circumstance being known 

 from the cries of the mother, four men went there in a 

 boat, and, knowing where the nest was, found the 

 child unhurt and untouched/' Wilson, the ornitho- 

 logist of America, gives an account of a feat of this 

 kind which a white-headed eagle had attempted. " A 

 woman who happened to be weeding in the garden, 

 had set her child down near to amuse itself while she 

 was at work, when a sudden and extraordinary rushing 

 sound, and a scream from her child, alarmed her, and 

 starting up, she beheld the infant thrown down, and 

 dragged some few feet, and a large bald eagle bearing 

 off^ a fragment of its frock, which being the only part 

 seized, and giving way, providentially saved the life of 

 the infant." This happened neai* Great Egg- harbour, 

 in New Jersey. 



The white-tailed eagle, judging it from the form of 

 its bill and claws, and from its general structure, must 

 be essentially a bird of prey ; but in the Hebrides it is 

 in reality more of a carrion bird. Hares and rabbits, 

 roes, and other weak or timid animals, it may attack 

 in other districts ; but there it has small scope for plun- 



