94 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
3. GOLDEN EAGLE—(4Aquila chrysaetos). 
It seems almost too tame to talk of an “ Hagle’s nest,” and we 
seem almost to feel as if different words might well be applied to 
the nursery-structure of the King.of Birds, and that of the tiny 
Tom-tit or the Wren. So, independently of the nice, simple, 
old meaning of the word eyry * which makes it so suitable as 
applied to the egg-home of the grand kingly birds, called Hagles, 
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 acquaint- 
ance with an Hagle. His home is not ima 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 fowr 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 yeer wud 
other preceding years; and would require a willing and able 
labourer to clear it thoroughly away, and no slight touch of the 
quality of the gate-bearimg Jewish hero in the juvenile nest- 
seeker who might aspire to carry off such a trophy of his nesting 
* Probably from Saxon Eghe (g sounded like y) an egg. The modern 
English form of the word would be “ Eggery ” therefore; the old English 
form Eyry or Eyrie. Chaucer (about 1400) wrote ey for egg. 
