62 THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



dark purple ground, veined and blotched with red-brown, with 

 streaks of black and yellow. The two before me are 3J and 

 3 inches long by 2f inches diameter in the centre. 



The golden eagle does not always allow her nest to be 

 plundered with impunity, but often attacks those engaged in 

 the spoliation, and sometimes successfully. In Sutherlandshire 

 two young men had a narrow escape from being trundled down 

 a precipice when carrying off the young, by the return of one 

 of the old birds, who dashed at them ; but they stuck to their 

 prize and reached safety. And in Forfarshire a farmer, in 

 ascending to an eagle's nest, was attacked by one of the old 

 birds, and only escaped from his perilous position by throwing 

 his bonnet to her, after which she flew to the ground, and 

 having his gun, he had just time to shoot her as she was re- 

 turning. 



The nest is generally on a high cliff in some solitary spot, 

 sometimes in the highest fork of a tree springing from the 

 mountain side, but oftener in a rocky ledge, hidden from above, 

 and almost unapproachable from below. But it is often found 

 quite exposed and easy of access, the solitude of the locality 

 being more the motive of selection than a mere desire to hide 

 it or place it beyond human reach — sometimes even lying on a 

 grassy ledge on the brae, as much exposed and approachable as 

 the eggs of the common tern which lie on the barren moor or 

 sandy flat. Those who picture the eyrie of the king of birds as 

 placed invariably beyond the reach of man, in some inaccessible 

 precipice, or in some dark ravine high up in the mountain's 

 brow — associating in their mind's eye the very name of eagle 

 with the cloud-capped tops of inaccessible mountains — will have 

 their dreams dispelled, like the mist on the brae, by the sun of 

 simple truth, for both the golden eagle and his congener, the 

 white-tailed sea eagle, of almost equal size, sometimes make 

 their nest upon the ground. In the Orkneys an old woman 

 came on a nest so placed, and walked home with the eggs 

 in her apron. Mr Wolley, the best authority I know 

 regarding the nest and eggs of the golden or mountain eagle, 

 says he " has carefully examined eight or nine distinct 

 eyries in Scotland, and visited the sites of many more. 

 They have always been in mountainous districts, but only in 

 one instance at any considerable elevation, and even there it 

 was in a little cave or cell which seemed to offer advantages too 

 great to be neglected. In every case they have been upon a 

 ledge or step, with rock rising close behind them, and often 



