Their Egos and Nests. 39 



we feel a sort of satisfaction in limiting the use of the 

 word eyry to the Eagle's nest alone. 



No easy matter is it always to cultivate a visiting 

 acquaintance with an Eagle. His home is not in a 

 place easy of access to any but himself, or those like 

 himself, up-borne on wings. On rock platforms (not 

 too scanty in size), in mountainous districts, and 

 guarded by rugged, stern, precipitous rock- walls, 

 utterly forbidding, in almost every case, access by 

 human members from below, and not often to be 

 safely reached from above, the great pile which forms 

 the nest is usually built. Sometimes, but very rarely 

 by comparison, it may be found on some large, possibly 

 shattered, forest-trunk amid some wild, seldom- 

 approached scene of loneliness or desolation. It is 

 four to five feet in diameter, made of sticks of no 

 mean size and length, sometimes lined with softer 

 materials, sometimes not; the new or more recently 

 constructed nest placed upon those of last year and 

 other preceding years ; and it would require a willing 

 and able labourer to clear it thoroughly away, and no 

 slight touch of the quality of the gate-bearing Jewish 

 hero in the juvenile nest-seeker who might aspire to 

 carry off such a trophy of his nesting exploits. The 

 site chosen for the nest-pile too is almost invariably 

 one which commands a wide, unhindered look-out; 

 partly, it is likely, under the influence of the strong 

 instinct of vigilance in self-preservation, partly also 

 for the advantages offered by such a dwelling-place 

 towards the detection of a distant prey. 



The number of eggs deposited is usually two, some- 

 times three. They are commonly of a dull whitish 



