114 THE EAGLE. 



did not take them away, the old ones loitered about, 

 and were very inactive, amusing themselves with their 

 young, till the stock of food had nearly come to an end. 



While the hen Eagle was hatching, the table or shelf 

 on the rock was generally kept well furnished for her 

 use: and when she was in that state, or the Eaglets very 

 young, the male-bird generally tore a wing from the 

 fowls for her, or a leg from the animals captured. These 

 Eagles, as is generally the case with birds that are not 

 gregarious, that is, which do not live together, or as- 

 semble in flocks, were faithful to each other, and would 

 not permit even their young after they had grown up, 

 to build a nest, or live near them, but drove them off to 

 a considerable distance. This gentleman did not learn 

 whether these Eagles were in the habit of sparing lambs, 

 kids, &c., in their own immediate neighbourhood, which 

 it has been said they do in some places. Thus, in the 

 Shiant Islands, a cluster of wild and retired rocks, situ- 

 ated amongst the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scot- 

 land, the natives assert that the Eagles, which are, or rather 

 were, very numerous there, particularly in the breeding 

 season, scrupulously abstained from providing their young 

 ones with animals belonging to the island in which they 

 had taken up their abode, invariably transporting them 

 from neighbouring islands, often some miles distant. 

 Their mode of catching the mountain deer, was by 

 pouncing down and fixing their talons between the poor 

 animal's horns, flapping at the same time with their 

 powerful wings, which so terrified the deer that they 

 lost all command over themselves, and setting off at full 

 speed, usually tumbled down some rock, where they were 

 either killed, or so disabled, as to become an easy prey 

 to the Eagles. 



Probably this instinctive mode of catching running 

 animals is common to all large birds of prey, and may 

 have led to the introduction of it in some parts of India, 

 where the natives are very fond of hawking, and train 

 their hunting Hawks so well, that one particular Falcon, 



