WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 91 
Follart, in Skye, on which a number of Hooded and Carrion Crows and a 
few of the larger Gulls were feeding. After surveying the carcase as he 
sailed round it in the air for a few moments, he finally alighted a few yards 
away, and then leaped forward to his meal. The Crows cleared out of his 
way, retiring to a little distance to watch his operations; while the Gulls, 
in light bouyant flight, hovered above or alighted on the sands, apparently 
waiting patiently for his departure. Before he had well settled down to 
his meal, however, a shepherd, whistling to his dogs on the cliffs near by, 
disturbed him, and he rose into the air with a large piece of the almost 
putrid flesh in his talons, and flapped lazily away over the loch towards 
Dunvegan Head, leaving the Gulls and the Crows in undisturbed possession 
to quarrel over their prize. Keen of sight as this Eagle is, still one is 
almost led to think that the Raven and the Crow are possessed of sharper 
powers of vision; for very frequently indeed it is led to its meal by seeing 
these birds congregated on a carcase. It may be, however, that the Crows and 
Ravens are more prying birds than the Eagle, and search every nook and 
corner more carefully. The White-tailed Eagle is also said to take living 
fish from their own element, something after the manner of the Osprey ; but 
how the bird accomplishes this feat it is hard to conjecture, unless, when flying 
very low over the waves, it snatches some fish basking on the surface with its 
claws, conveying it to land to devour at leisure. When carrion is scarce the 
White-tailed Eagle seeks other prey—the ducks and sea-fowl, taking them 
more by stealth than prowess. In the winter months this species takes up 
its abode on the banks of a loch or inland sheet of water, to live almost 
entirely on the water-birds. Daily it may be seen in one particular tree, 
watching, in company with a pair of Peregrines, the ducks on the water, 
and waiting in the hope that they will rise and offer an easy capture. 
At this season the bird will come much nearer to man’s habitation in search 
of garbage and refuse, ofttimes being hard pressed for food, although, in 
common with the Raptores generally, it is capable of great endurance.” 
The many tales told of this bird, as well as of the Golden Eagle and the 
Lammergier, which are all represented as carrying off children, are no 
doubt myths; for, as Saxby, in his ‘Birds of Shetland,’ very justly 
remarks, every Eagle’s eyrie in the islands is pointed out as the one made 
famous for all time by its owners carrying off that world-renowned baby in 
times so long ago as to be clouded in deep obscurity. 
The White-tailed Eagle is undoubtedly mated to its partner for life ; and 
even should one of the birds be destroyed the survivor will obtain a fresh 
companion in an incredibly short space of time—a habit peculiar to most, 
if not all, rapacious birds. For many seasons in succession this bird returns 
to its old eyrie, merely making a few necessary alterations each season, 
adding to the structure, or making good what damage it may have sus- 
tained during the storms of the previous winter. ‘The site is varied 
