22 AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 



other side. When we got a little beyond where the nest was, we 

 looked over, and there lay the hen Eagle on the nest. We watched 

 her for an instant or two as she sat, with the axis of her body parallel 

 with that of the den, her head towards us — that is, towards the closed 

 end of the den. She stretched'her neck a little on one side, saw us, 

 and slowly flew off*, sailing or flapping smoothly across the hollow, till 

 at some distance she turned a corner, and, though we kept a good 

 look-out, we did not see her again. We were about twenty yards 

 from her when she was on her nest, and I had time to look at her 

 copper- coloured head and neck, her hazel eye and yellow cere, &c., 

 before she moved ; and when she was on the wing, I had a good 

 sight of her spread marbled tail. A fine object she was ! On looking 

 at the nest we were disappointed to see only a single egg in it, which 

 did not look a very good one. The rope being tied round me, and a 

 trusty man being next the rock, I descended quite easily by three 

 stages or platforms into the nest, which might be twelve yards from 

 the top, or even less. On one of these was an old nest. All the flats 

 were covered with Luzula. The nest was made principally of heather ; 

 but there were in it some branches of birch, newly gathered from the 

 tree, apparently within a day or two. The lining was almost entirely 

 leaves of Luzula. The hollow, which was well formed, might be two 

 spans in width, and was about one span from the rock, which did not 

 overhang much. In front of the nest was a small Rowan-tree, growing 

 at the edge of the platform. Some time later in the day I climbed 

 almost into the nest from my right hand below, and from my left hand 

 I climbed to the platform above the nest, thus ascertaining that in two 

 directions it might be reached without ropes. I went to the place 

 from which the forester who was with me shot an Eagle some time 

 ago, and last year shot another, which I saw stuffed at his house, 

 from the same spot, getting so close to it that he could have touched 

 it with the muzzle of his gun. He then saw the whole of its body 

 except the head, and sent some one round to clap his hands and 

 frighten it off"; but it did not go until after several such noises were 

 made, and it fell some way on the other side of the burn. On another 

 occasion, when a bird was shot at and missed from the same spot, it 

 darted confusedly into the depths below. It was in a wonderfully 

 easy place, six feet from the level at the top of the rock — so easy, 

 that there is almost a highway into it from the left above, and from 

 the right a drop of less than a fathom. It was on a ledge, say four or 

 five feet wide, and flat. I went in at the left and came out at the 

 right. There were two birch-trees and a rowan about it — one of the 

 birches in front of the platform. The nest was of the usual construe- 



