40 AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 



while that bird lived, one of the eggs was always plain and the other spotted, 

 but that ever since they had been both marked alike. Mr. Wolley was pay- 

 ing me a visit when these eggs arrived ; and one of them being somewhat 

 injured in the journey, he with gxeat patience repaired it so skilfully that it 

 is now but little the worse. 



In 1849 Mr. Wolley visited this locality : he says, '' Being without 

 a guide, I could not find a nest ; but there was a cliff, on the summit 

 of which an Eagle was in the habit of feeding.'^] 



[§ 49. 7k;o.— Satherlandshire, 3 April, 1861. 



O. W. tab. iv. fig. 4. 



These beautifid eggs were sent to me by the correspondent mentioned in 

 the last section, and, as he informs me, from the same nest as those he obtained 

 for me in 1859. " If bred by the same birds," he adds, " is more than I can 

 ascertain ;" but the similarity of marldngs observable in all four would tend 

 to the belief that they were the produce of one bird. The specimen figured 

 was placed in the hands of the draughtsman but a very few days after I received 

 it, and he has been very successfid in depicting its glowing and delicate tints. 

 Its fellow is more highly colom-ed still, so as somewhat to resemble one of the 

 magnificent pair of eggs of Mr. Wolley's own taking, of which Mr. Hewitson 

 has given an illustration. For this reason only I have abstained from having 

 it figured here, though well aware that a representation of it woidd have 

 greatly enriched the present work. My correspondent wi'ote that he went 

 himself and saw the bird, which he could have shot, and that the eggs were 

 taken out of the nest in his presence.] 



[§ 50. One. — Sutherlandshire, 11 April, 1862, 



I received this egg from the same cori'espondent as those in the last two 

 sections J and having regard to its appearance and the district whence it 

 comes, as well as the information given me, I cannot doubt it to be the pro- 

 duce of the same hen bird as those, though it was not laid in the same nest. 

 Early in the season my correspondent ascertained that a pair of Eagles had 

 prepared three nests within the distance of a mile from one another. Two of 

 them were in the same crag, from the summit of which is visible the rock 

 whence the eggs he sent me in 1859 and 1861 were taken. It seems that, 

 on the 10th of April, a shepherd discovered an Eagle sitting on one of these 

 two nests, and, expecting that she had " dropped her eggs," next day he 

 procured the assistance of another man, and by means of ropes got into the 

 nest, which he found to contain this only one. In consequence of being thus 

 disturbed, the bird does not appear to have laid a second, though my cor- 

 respondent, in fuU confidence that she would do so, examined all the sites he 

 knew of within a circle of forty miles ; but the only satisfaction he had was 

 once seeing both birds on the wing. He adds that the nest from which this 

 egg came had been deserted for many years past : he himself visited it the day 

 after it had been plundered, and is certain that its tenants were the same 



