1 64 Cameron, Nesting of the Golden Eagle. \avt 



caused by the continued presence of the eagles among the winged 

 game, the grouse gradually left the ground, and a good grouse 

 moor was spoiled in consequence. In this country a similar 

 flight of eagles after a Sage Grouse is recorded by Mr. Ridgway. 1 

 "A pair — the female leading — were observed to give chase to a 

 sage hen, chasing her on the wing until the fugitive dropped down 

 to the ground from exhaustion, where she was picked up by the 

 foremost of the eagles." There is some evidence that, in Scot- 

 land, eagles have struck down both grouse and ptarmigan on the 

 wing, but at present absolute confirmation is lacking. In his 

 letter to ' Country Life ' (London), mentioned above, Mr. C. J. 

 Cornish has raised the question of the carrying power of eagles. 



Personally I have never known an eagle to carry anything 

 heavier than a seven pound jack-rabbit and would think eight- 

 een pounds (the extreme weight of a jack-rabbit or a Scotch 

 brown hare), to be the extent of the largest eagle's capacity. It 

 follows, therefore, that the lambs taken are very small. Thirty 

 years ago eagles were extremely common on the west coast of 

 Scotland, and during the breeding season each pair taxed the 

 sheep farmer from one to two lambs a day according as game 

 was plentiful or scarce. A war of extermination was waged 

 against them and my uncle, a sheep farmer in Skye, killed to his 

 own gun during his life time 90 eagles in defence of his lambs. 



It is gratifying to know that the collapse of sheep-farming in 

 the Scottish Highlands as a profitable industry, and the con- 

 sequent abandonment to deer of large areas formerly grazed by 

 sheep, has given the Golden Eagle as a species a new lease of 

 life, these birds being now as jealously preserved by owners and 

 lessees of deer forests as they were once ruthlessly destroyed by 

 the sheep-farmers on the same ground. 



As regards the changes of plumage in Golden Eagles, the 

 nestlings hatched ' downy white ' and remained in this stage for 

 a month, when they were about the size of a Herring Gull, and 

 black feathers appeared in the wings and tail. At six weeks old 

 they had changed almost completely to a black brown, while at 



1 A History of North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway. 

 Land Birds, Vol. Ill, p. 319, 1874. 



