A GOLDEN EAGLE. 43 



the first time I saw him on the wing. For one brief 

 second he flew clumsily towards her, then lit on 

 his feet again at her side, following her again over the 

 ledge as she backed away. They were now beyond 

 my sight, and on leaving my hiding-place I found 

 him devouring the rabbit at a considerable distance 

 from the nest, after which he flapped still further 

 away, seeming to revel in his newly-gained strength 

 and powers of flight. Wherever he stopped during 

 the day his parents found him without the 

 slightest difficulty, alighting wherever they had seen 

 him last and listening intently till they heard his 

 voice. 



For a week or more a heavy mist hung around the 

 Eagles' home, but at last there came a night when the 

 white veil was swept from the hills by a wild gale from 

 the north. At midnight the moon peered through a 

 rift in the clouds, and, hoping for the best, I started again 

 for the eyrie at daybreak. Like a red ball of fire the 

 sun leaped up in the east, and the tops of the distant 

 mountains gleamed in its rays, clad thinly in a white 

 garb of mist. The nest was empty when I arrived, and 

 for a moment I feared that the young Eagle had gone. 

 A brief search, however, discovered him on the edge of 

 the cliff close to my hiding-place, where he was busily 

 devouring a grouse, freshly killed since daybreak. For 

 the last time I crept into my hiding-place, and the young 

 Eagle, now suspicious of any sound, flapped back slowly 

 into the nest. A red dawn spells rain, and, sure enough, 

 before an hour had passed, the sky became darkened 

 and a steady downpour began once more. The hours 

 passed slowly, and the Eaglet stood beneath the ledge 

 which had sheltered him from so many storms throughout 

 the summer months. At length he stepped forward 

 to the edge of the cliff and gazed intently upwards, 

 at the same time uttering the low cheeping note with 

 which he had always greeted his parents' return. It 



