Raptorial Birds of the Solway Area. 327 



18th December, 1903. 



Chairman — Dr J. Maxwell Ross, Vice-President. 



The Diurnal and Nocturnal Raptorial Birds of the Solway 

 Area. By Mr Robert Service. 



The Eagles. 



The identity of the species that formerly frequented so 

 many eyries in Solway has been badly mixed up. A century 

 ago there must have been pretty nearly a score of occupied nest- 

 ing sites in Dumfriesshire and Galloway. Both species were 

 undoubtedly present. Those at the head of Moffatdale and 

 Annandale — some three eyries — may well have been Golden 

 Eagles. 



Old David Tweedie, in his day a famous anglers' guide on 

 Tweedside, when interviewed in 1834, when he was in his Sjrd 

 year, is said to have stated : — 



" That there is not one salmon, or trout, now for 20 that 

 were found in his young days, that everything is changed, saving 

 and excepting the glorious green hills of his native valley, that he 

 perfectly recollects when there were just six pairs of Eagles in 

 Moffat water — the shepherds keeping their numbers down to this 

 mark." 



The very last of the resident Dumfriesshire Eagles (and it 

 was a Golden Eagle, for I have seen the specimen) was brought 

 down by a shepherd in a way which, so far as I know, is quite 

 unique. On the farm of Gameshope, near to Loch Skene, one 

 Eagle in particular got so bold as to lift lambs within 20 yards of 

 the herd, a man named Bauldie Hairstanes. He could not stand 

 this, even from an Eagle, which is not to be wondered at, and he 

 used to carry stones in his plaid when going over the hill. One 

 day in April, 1833, this herd was going his rounds, and the Eagle 

 — probably having young in the cliffs above Loch Skene — 

 swooped at the dogs. Bauldie threw a stone, which, very likely 

 more by good luck than good guidance, struck the Eagle and 

 brought it down to the ground, where, with the help of the dogs, 

 it was secured. I question if a similar incident ever happened 

 in this or any other country. 



In Galloway Eagles nested till after 1850, and one (which 



