182 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



parts of Great Britain. Its chief enemy has been the 

 collector, as, for instance, in one of its last strongholds, 

 the New Forest. High prices were offered for eggs and 

 skins of native origin, and the great beauty of the former 

 may have been additional incentive to the collector. 

 They are round and glossy, two or more in number, 

 and creamy in ground-colour, with rich red or brown 

 blotches. As indicated by the scientific name, and by 

 the old name * Bee-Hawk,' the species is almost entirely 

 insectivorous ! It is allied to the Kite, and is in no 

 sense a Buzzard. 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE 



(Aquila chrysaetus). 



Frontispiece. 



We have already indicated our personal inclination to 

 award to the Peregrine Falcon the position of the finest 

 and noblest of rapacious birds. And yet the Eagle is 

 not without claim to his popular title of 'King of Birds.' 

 The Falcon is at all times the embodiment of activity, 

 boldness, and ' dash ; ' but the Eagle has an air of regal 

 dignity and an appearance of massive strength. Stand- 

 ing perched on a jutting rock on a mist - wreathed 

 mountain wall, he looks indeed the monarch of the 

 wild glen ; wheeling and soaring, hours long, at a great 

 height in the clear sky, he seems supreme, unrivalled in 

 his conquest of the air, with so much ease and dignity 

 does he maintain his level and perform his evolutions. 

 But he has other aspects, aspects with little dignity, 

 little nobility, little that calls for admiration. None 

 knew and loved him more than Macgillivray, but he 

 admitted that 'his nobility has a dash of clownishness, 



