32 About the Fe.ithered Folk. 



behaved ill at home, decided to 

 spare the flocks of their neighbours 

 and do their plundering at a 

 distance. And it is difficult to see 

 what other reason they could have 

 had for bringing their prey from afar. 



An acquaintance of mine vouches 

 for the positive truth of the following 

 curious story : 



On a hill in Caithness, an Eagle 

 was devouring the carcase of a 

 blue-hare that it had killed, when 

 a fox sprang out of the heather, and 

 seizing the bird by the wing, tried 

 to rob it of its prey. By vigorously 

 fighting with its claws the Eagle 

 managed to free its wing; then 

 the fox dashed at its breast, and 

 fastened its sharp teeth deep in the 

 flesh of the bird. The great wings 

 beat, and those tremendous talons 

 struck out in vain. The fox held 

 on. Then the bird rose into the 

 air, and with the fox hanging to its 

 breast it mounted to a great height, 



