GOLDEN EAGLE. 107 



wliich he affirms is perfectly true. Two sons of a man 

 of the name of Murray, in Acliuahiaclirich, having rob- 

 bed an eagle's nest, were retreating with the young-, 

 when one of the parent birds, having returned, made a 

 most determined attack upon them. They said they 

 had never been in such peril ; for the eagle dipped her 

 wing in a burn that ran by, and then in sand, and 

 sweeping repeatedly by them, struck at them with her 

 wing. Although each had a stick, it was with great 

 difficulty that they at length eifected their escape, when 

 almost ready to sink under fatigue. 



" John JVPKay says, that, when an eagle approaches 

 a wood, you may sometimes see thirty or forty black 

 grouse rise, while she is yet at the distance of a quar- 

 ter of a mile, and scamper off in great haste. He also 

 states, that the stench from the nest is quite intoler- 

 able, owing to the quantity of putrid matter about it ; 

 and that he saw six red grouse at once, with a great 

 many bones, in the nest of a large hawk." 



With respect to the above anecdotes, I have only to 

 remark, that, having been furnished by respectable 

 persons who have resided in districts where eagles are 

 not uncommon, they are entitled to full credit. The 

 occurrence of a similar fact in Scotland, seems to confirm 

 the Norwegian account of eagles attempting to blind 

 oxen by wetting their feathers and then covering them 

 with sand, as related in Von Buch's Travels ; but the 

 Sutherland eagle certainly took the most judicious plan, 

 when it dipped the wing only, without clotting the rest 

 of its plumage. 



The Golden Eagle in captivity, is more ferocious 

 than the White-tailed Sea-Eagle, and can scarcely be 



