EAGLES AND EAGLE-LIKE BIRDS. 



GOLDEN EAGLE.— Form, like White-Tailed Eagle 

 (plate 67). 3 feet. General colour deep brown, except 

 head and hind-neck, which are tawny ; ash-gray tail, 

 with dark cross-bars and terminal band ; flight- 

 feathers black ; bill hooked and dark ; legs feathered 

 close up to the feet ; feet yellow. Young birds 

 have the half of the tail nearer the body white, the 

 remainder being brown. Resident. 



Eggs. — Usually 2, sometimes 3, dirty- white, patched 

 with rusty-brown ; 2*9 x 2-3 inches (plate 127). 



Nest. — A large platform of sticks, with a lining of 

 softer material, placed usually on some lofty rock, 

 but occasionally in a tree. 



A bird of 3 feet in length, with 4| feet span of 

 wing from tip to tip, with broad, rounded tail, and 

 of commensurate bulk, the Golden Eagle is unlikely 

 to be confounded with any other bird unless it be 

 itself an Eagle. The Golden Eagle, however, is dis- 

 tinguislied from others by its light-tawny nape and 

 hind-neck. Owing to its depredations among sheep, 

 this bird has been killed off throughout the greater 

 part of the British Isles, until now it breeds only by 

 sufferance in the Scottish Highlands and the islands 

 ofi^ the west coast of Scotland. It nests on the crags 

 or in a tree, and preys upon hares, rabbits, grouse, &c., 

 besides being a devourer of carrion. It is a lethargic 



