14 THE HOME-LIFE OF 



A fairly satisfactory picture of the female brooding 

 having been thus obtained, the eyrie was now left quiet for 

 nearly a week, during which period I made up my mind 

 to give up the rest of the summer to the task of making a 

 complete record of the home-life of our noblest bird of 

 prey. How far I succeeded it is for my readers to judge. 



On the 25th of May, having left the camera at a 

 Kestrel's eyrie further down the glen, we visited the Eagles 

 again, but to my extreme annoyance found that one 

 Eaglet had vanished. The other, the smaller of the two, 

 which turned out to be a cock bird, was now strong and 

 iusty, but the larger one had presumably died and had 

 been removed by the parents or taken by some vermin 

 from the nest. There was much speculation as to its 

 fate, and the possibility of its having been removed by 

 the old birds to another nest was suggested. This 

 theory, however, was disproved by the subsequent 

 behaviour of the parents, and the matter has remained 

 a mystery till the present day. 



On this occasion picks and spades formed part of our 

 equipment and took the place of the camera which 

 usually accompanied me on these expeditions, and, after 

 a fruitless search for the missing Eaglet, we set to work 

 to excavate and build a hiding place which would conceal 

 myself and the camera. There was, as before, no sign 

 of the parents when we arrived, nor did they put in 

 an appearance during our operations. A carcase of a 

 grouse, freshly plucked, and disembowelled, and the 

 hindquarters of a young rabbit, were the only dainties 

 which we found in the eyrie. 



The making of the " bothy," as it was afterwards 

 called by the stalkers, was, however, no easy job, for 

 the ledge was extremely narrow at the only point which 

 commanded a view of the nest. Here a false step would 

 have spelt death, for the cliff below us was almost 

 perpendicular, and great care had to be exercised to 

 avoid slipping while the work was in progress. With 



