Hohnesdah Natural History Club. 43 



the nest we found the empty shell out of which the eaglet had been 

 hatched ; and though a good deal broken and somewhat washed by the rain, 

 after careful mending it made a very fair specimen. We saw nothing what- 

 ever of the old birds. At the other side of the valley, and far above, towers 

 a grand mass of precipitous crag perfectly inaccessible, and in many places 

 far overhanging. Against this, in a spot that was pointed out to us, though 

 from a long distance, a pair of golden eagles have for many years had their 

 nest, and this never yet has been and probably never will be reached by 

 man. There is another nest in the same valley rather further up than the 

 one I visited, but this I have not myself seen. It seems to belong to the 

 same pair of birds that tenant the neighbouring nest, and they resort to it, 

 if not in alternate years, at any rate occasionally. When I again visited the nest 

 I have described last May, I found that the birds had used it, but the eggs had 

 been taken by the sheijherds before that time. On the 31st of May last year I 

 visited another steej) deep valley, one side of which consisted of a succession of 

 grand crags rising range above range, some of them very sheer and precipi- 

 tous, with much broken rocky ground between the various tiers and masses 

 of cliff. Our guide was again a shepherd, whose occupation constantly led 

 him among these rugged crags, so that he knew well all the passes com- 

 municating from one accessible spot to another. He conducted us far up 

 the steep side of the glen, to where an eagle's nest could be seen, some 50ft. 

 above us, built on a projecting piece of rock against the side of a precipitous 

 wall of cliff, at a place where two faces of the rock meet, forming somewhat 

 of a corner. A small mountain ash sprang from the rock close to the nest. 

 Our guide was tolerably certain this nest was unoccupied that year, but 

 wishing to make sure of this, we ascended by a long circuit to a point at 

 the top of the range of cliff, where by holding on to a little birch tree that 

 projected over the edge we were able to look down into the nest, and satisfy 

 ourselves that it was empt}^ The best chance of getting to this nest would 

 be by a rope from above, though a tolerably long one would be necessary, 

 as it must be a descent of 70ft. or 80ft. I feel little doubt, however, but that 

 a really skilful climber with a perfectly cool head might ascend to it from 

 below. We searched about among the neighbouring crags in hopes of dis- 

 covering the present abode of the engles; the shejpherd thought very likely 

 it might be among the rocks near the head of the valley, as he had noticed 

 one or both of the birds about in that localitj^. We accordingly turned in 

 that direction, and were much gratified to see one of the eagles soaring 

 round and round slowly in circles at a great elevation, its broad blunt 

 wings being never moved for minutes together. The ranges of cliff in 

 this part of the valley were more broken and less steep than those further 

 down ; in one of them we all three noticed from a long distance a sort of 

 recess or ledge, apparently just suited to the choice of an eagle, indeed just 

 about such a site as that in which the nest of the white-tailed eagle is 

 placed in Mr. Booth's splendid museum at Brighton. On examining the 

 •pot through our telescopes we could distinctly see that a nest of some sort 

 was there, and as we got nearer, and could hear the cry of the young bird?, 



