360 The Golden Eagle 
with two white eggs which were of no use to anybody, there you 
have the eggs, take your gun and shoot the birds, they are capital 
food, worth more than a 
Eagle.” 
But that was many many years ago and before I had learned 
the lesson, never to be induced to climb to a nest unless I had 
previously seen the birds and, from watching their movements, had 
made myself acquainted with their secrets. I dedicate this simple 
Spanish tale to these ‘naturalists’ who fondly imagine that by 
paying natives to find them nests and bring them eggs they have 
mastered the whole art of birdsnesting. 
In Spain the Golden Eagle is essentially a rock-nesting bird. 
Out of a large number of nests I have visited I have never yet 
come across one in a tree, whereas in Scotland a certain number of 
the few Eagles which still survive habitually select trees for their nests. 
Doubtless one of the reasons why Eagles usually resort to 
places difficult of access is found in the centuries of persecution 
they have undergone from mankind, typified in resentful goatherds 
or peasants whose flocks or poultry have suffered from Eagles’ 
depredations. But nothing could be wider of the mark than the 
popular belief that these grand birds invariably nest in the loftiest 
and most inaccessible cliffs. On the contrary they seem, as a rule, 
infinitely to prefer some quiet valley where passers-by are few 
and far between, and where some small crag presents a_ peculiar 
difficulty to the would-be climber, to a bold precipice, visible 
from afar, known to all the countryside and popularly supposed 
to be unclimbable. Of course, some Eagle’s nests are placed in 
stupendous cliffs, but, as a rule, provided an adequate supply of 
ropes can be taken to such a spot, they are much easier and 
safer to descend than are far smaller crags, possibly only 50 to 
100 ft. high, which by reason either of steep and crumbling 
slopes above or of overhanging rocks are both difficult and 
dangerous. 
