366 The Golden Eagle 
I was equipped with a more suitable camera, the Kodak arranged to 
focus down from the normal 6 ft. to 18 in. A withered cork tree grew 
hard by the nest and, by hanging my watch on a twig in front of 
me and pressing the camera against the face of the cliff, I was 
luckily able to take several time-exposures of thirty to forty seconds 
which gave good results. I subsequently revisited site “ A” of the 
previous year and found it to be in the possession of a Griffon 
Vulture which had relined the old Eagle’s nest with tufts of grass 
and bents, and had laid its single white egg in it. 
oo 
” 
In the fourth year neither Eagle nor Vulture occupied site “A, 
although the cliff was held by several pairs of Griffons. The Eagles 
this year had returned once again to site ‘B.” This was quite 
the smallest place I ever saw tenanted by Golden Eagles and was 
almost identical with that at ‘C,” with a steep slope above and 
was further actually approachable to within 12 ft. or so from 
below, along a narrow shelf. Beyond this further progress was 
impossible and the nest had eventually to be reached from above. 
The fifth year the Eagles returned to site ‘C,” and laid one 
egg which was unfortunately taken; the female then proceeded 
to site “A,” and laid a second egg, but this nest being easily 
reached was so disturbed that they forsook it. Unluckily they 
” 
were weak enough to return once again to the same site ‘A 
in the sixth year, and access being easy the eggs were eventually 
taken. The seventh year they returned to site ‘‘C,” and laid two 
egos. Besides these three sites thus used in rotation as described, 
I came across a fourth site, where I was told they had at times 
nested in former years, but, beyond seeing the Eagles around this 
crag, I have no proof that they did. 
This habit of Golden Eagles to select a shelf of rock in 
comparatively low cliffs is a very curious one. I found the nest 
of a third pair in almost exactly a_ similar situation to those 
already described as ““B” and “C,” a day’s march south of them. 
