HALI^ETUS ALBICILLA. 53 



was small ; but in about a hundred yards slie failed, fell over, and lay- 

 dead, with her eyes closed. We hid her up till the evening, and I 

 skinned her the next day. She was a large bird, and had a shot 

 through her heart. The male flew about at distance, flapping slowly ; 

 but he never cried or screamed, as did the birds on the last occasion. 



" On getting above the nest, I can look down into it from about 

 twelve feet, and I see that there are eggs ; but it looks impracticable, 

 or nearly so, without a rope. A stake is planted, and soon, with the 

 rope fastened under my arms, I am lowered into the nest, in which I 

 write this account. It appears about five feet in length by three feet 

 in breadth from the rock, on a sort of triangular ledge, the small 

 Rowan touching it in front. The rock is scarcely overhanging. The 

 nest is made chiefly of dead heather-stalks, wdth a few sticks for the 

 foundation, the largest of which are above an inch in diameter, and 

 two feet long. It is lined with a considerable depth of moss, fern, 

 grass, and Luzula, as was the Golden Eagle's before referred to 

 [§ 26], and is nearly as large. The hollow is small for the size of 

 the bird, and very well defined. There is a rank sort of smell, but 

 no animal remains in or near it ; several feet below is an old nest." 



After having blown the eggs, written upon them, and finished my 

 journal, I climbed up without hauling, going round a corner, which 

 would, however, be impassable without a rope. The men, who had 

 never been in an Eagle's nest, visited it out of curiosity, being properly 

 secured by the rope. I had other Eagle adventures in the course of 

 the day [§ 27] . At night a forester returned, and next morning told 

 me that he had hurried back, having heard of me ; for he was to have 

 killed the two old ones, and taken the eggs for the keeper ^ 



§ 69. r^o.— Sutherlandshire, 1849. 



These were sent to me from the north, 11th December, 1849, with 

 a live young Golden Eagle. A year and a half afterwards the sender 

 told me the name of the headland where the nest was : it was one 

 of those I had not time to visit when in the district. 



§ 70. ^z^o.— Sutherbndshire, May, 1850. 



These two eggs, as I subsequently discovered, were from a nest 

 to which my dog " Watch " and I climbed the preceding year, 



^ [The hen bird killed by INIr. Wolley from this nest (at the instigation of the 

 shepherds), and which, I believe, was the only one he ever shot in his life, was 

 sent to England to be stuifed, and is now in the possession of Mr. Edge at StreUey, 

 where I saw it in 1856. — Ed.] 



