On MotLiitain and Loch. 85 



We have heard a good deal about the destruction of 

 newly-dropped lambs by these Eagles, but there is 

 much to be said on the other side. Lambs at this 

 early age are liable to many fatalities, and it is 

 scarcely fair to attribute their disappearance to the 

 Eagles. Many lambs are drowned or killed by 

 storms, and by accidental falls over rocks and cliffs: 

 their bodies offer a welcome meal to the Eagles. 

 Some of these fatalities are due to the carelessness 

 of shepherds and keepers, who take good care that 

 the sheep farmer shall be made to believe that Eagles 

 are responsible for them. Many years ago we were 

 up the hills with a keeper and his dog. The latter 

 — a wild unruly brute of a retriever — chased a lamb, 

 and knocked it over a steep bank into a mountain 

 loch. We recovered the body, and then the keeper 

 with a sly look informed me that he should tell so 

 and so that the loss of this lamb was due to an Eagle! 

 It is the tale of the lowland coverts over again. 

 There a scarcity of game is attributed to poachers or 

 vermin, whilst in reality a dishonest keeper has dis- 

 posed of it to an equally dishonest dealer. In the 

 Highlands the loss of Grouse and lambs and deer 

 calves is too often laid to the Eagles' charge, but let 

 us hope that such a custom will cease, and that these 

 beautiful birds will duly profit by the circumstance. 



Another raptorial bird by no means unfrequently 

 met with on the mountains is the Peregrine. In 



