AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 61 



Shakespeare says, in " Love's Labour Lost," 



" A lover's eye will yaze an eagle blind," 



And that 



" Gold is of power to make an eagle's speed." 



Nest, Eggs, and Young. 



They make their nest in March, or early in April, being, like 

 most of the tribe, early breeders. They often return to the 

 same eyrie for many successive years, if they do not fall victims 

 to their common enemies, the gun or stamp of man. The nest 

 is large, rive or six feet across at the base, and composed of 

 sticks and heather, with sometimes freshly-broken sprigs of 

 Scotch or larch fir. The lining is of grass, moss, fern, and 

 other vegetable materials nearest— indeed, birds generally select 

 the materials readiest — at hand ; but there is invariably a large 

 proportion of luzula sylvatica, green outside, but soon dried 

 inside by the heat of the bird. The whole fabric, though 

 apparently loose, is very firm ; some of the understicks are 

 an inch in diameter. It is wide and flat, something like a 

 heron's, but much larger, with a well- formed hollow in the 

 centre about 14 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. 

 In Shetland, where sticks are scarce and sea tangles plenti- 

 ful, the long tangles are taken to form the base, which 

 when dried are even better than sticks, being more pliable. 

 The eggs are laid at intervals of several days, and are 

 generally two in number, sometimes three, sometimes one, so 

 that the first egg is hatched before the second. When destruc- 

 tion has found out their eyrie, the female is always shot first. 

 The male then takes her place on the nest for several days, 

 until he gets tired, and seeks another mate, in which, consider- 

 ing their scarcity, he wonderfully soon succeeds, possibly from 

 Norway, unless he, too, falls a victim at the doomed spot. But 

 I know of no instance where the male has brought out the eggs 

 or reared the young by himself. The eggs are hatched at the 

 end of April, and then the forays of the old birds become 

 formidable. They are at first covered with grey down, but Mr 

 Wolley took three from one nest ; and Mr Lelmon, in his bird- 

 nesting account of Orkney, got a nest with three young ones in 

 it. The eggs are beautifully coloured — a variegated pale and 



