80 THE WHITE-TAILED SEA EAGLE. 



were seen hovering over Lerwick. This was the first time for twenty years 

 that eagles had been captured alive in Shetland." 



There are many traditions of eagles carrying off children as 

 prey for their young, and the following paragraph from a daily 

 paper proves the fact : — 



"A child, three years old, has been carried off near Trenesin, in 

 Hungary, by an eagle, in sight of the child's father and mother. The 

 father, who is a railway servant, was giving the signal to an approaching 

 train, and the child was left alone for a moment. The eagle seized it and 

 disappeared with its prey." 



Sea eagles were once common in Shetland, and reared their 

 young in comparative safety amid the inaccessible rocks and 

 crags by which it is guarded from the sea on all sides ; but, 

 through trapping and shooting, they are now as nearly extinct 

 there as they are in the Highlands of Scotland ; and, as far as 

 can be ascertained, only four pairs are known to have built 

 nests in recent years on these northern isles. One pair had an 

 eyrie at !S T oss — a high rocky island on the east of Bressay ; 

 another at Xorth Maven ;• a third at Fitful Head ; and the 

 fourth at Unst. About ten years ago a great fight was witnessed 

 on the top of the cliffs at Noss between two eagles, supposed to 

 be from JSToss and Unst. The conflict lasted several hours, and 

 when the spot was afterwards visited it was found strewn with 

 feathers and bones — one of the eagles had been vanquished and 

 apparently devoured. The victor was thought to be the Unst 

 bird, as the eagles at Noss were not again seen. Thus we see, 

 while they do not care to contend with other species, they can 

 sometimes fight to the death with one another — like two stags at 

 rutting time ; or two dogs over one bone ; or two members of 

 the human family, when their blood is up, over a will. 



Some time ago I read a thrilling story in the papers of a fight 

 with an eagle on the huge rocky mountain called Craigmaskeldie, 

 but whether the bird was a golden or a sea eagle is not stated. 

 The abrupt summit of this well-known mountain, which rises to 

 a height of 2,000 feet above the shores of Lochlee, is well 

 known to tourists, for nowhere else in Scotland is there a finer 

 combination of pastoral scenery with what is stem and wild. 

 Craigmaskeldie is more like a colossal rock than a mountain, and 

 is a striking exception to the other Glenesk hills. It used to be 

 a favourite haunt of eagles until they were trapped and shot. 

 The eagle of which I write was noted for its strength and 

 rapacity, and locally called " the eagle of Craigmaskeldie." The 

 eyrie was perched upon a narrow shelf which jutted out from 



