20 AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 



in vain. The men were sent to the top to pitch stones down ; and a 

 fearful sight it was to see the huge masses bounding and whizzing 

 through the air. My dog " Jock " and I then went under the rock to 

 look for traces, and in one place we saw bones and sticks as if from 

 the nest ; but on looking up I could not see it, though I thought it must 

 have been there. We saw Deer, one of which stood at not more 

 than fifty yards. I went on as far as a second loch, round the corner 

 from which two Ravens came to meet me. On firing a shot a female 

 Peregrine left her nest, the male having appeared before. We 

 saw more Deer and a Ptarmigan. Then there was a huge fall of 

 rock, and an alarm of a stone overhead. On returning past the 

 corrie we saw an Eagle again, but after one turn along the face of 

 the rocks it sailed away. We left the ropes in the corrie, so as to 

 make a further search the next morning, and got home about ten to 

 an excellent supper and a noble peat-fire at the lodge. The follow- 

 ing day the forester went with us to the corrie ; I observed that our 

 guide kept us a long way from the rocks, and he suggested that our 

 ropes should be left on the other side of the valley, where we were to 

 pass the next day. With the aid of a glass he pointed out the sites 

 of two old nests. On the morrow (4th May) , we started. The heat was 

 tremendous. The men made straight for the ropes, while I kept to 

 the left and more sheltered side of the valley, intending to re-examine 

 the Eagle-rocks in this corrie. I fired a shot, when an Eagle showed 

 high overhead. I called to the men across the valley ; and when they, 

 poor fellows, arrived, we went back to the old place where the two 

 nests had been seen. Climbing up to the right of the nest as I faced 

 the rock, I saw that it was new ; but to my vexation I heard the same 

 little squeaks from the egg as on a former occasion (§ 26), showing 

 that the young were hatched. I could not see into the nest ; and it 

 not appearing easy of access from that quarter, I went to the other 

 side, where, after throwing down two or three loose bits so as to make 

 a footing round a narrow corner, all was plain sailing. 



"The nest is five or six feet across by three or four broad from 

 the angle. The cup or hollow of the nest is a foot from the angle. 

 Foundation made of sticks, of which the largest may be one inch in 

 diameter : top made of heather, of which some is green. Lined with 

 Luzula, fern, grass, and moss, chiefly the former : rhizome of it is 

 rather like palmetto. The same stuff" is growing all over the shelf, 

 which may be, including the slope to the tree (which is five or six 

 feet below the nest), about nine feet square, or, rather, lozenge-shaped. 

 A shelf at the height of ten feet overhangs to the tree by the plumb. 

 Tn the nest is a white e^^, with half the shell of another (which last 



