102 THE EAGLE. 



shire, about 150 years ago. He described it as about two 

 yards square, formed of great sticks, resting one end on the 

 ledge of a rock, and the other on two birch-trees, upon which 

 was a layer of rushes, and over them a layer of heath, and 

 upon the heath rushes again, upon which lay one young one, 

 and an addle-egg, and by them a lamb and a hare, and three 

 heath-poults (Red Grouse). 



But the most particular and curious account of one of these 

 Eagle-nest larders is related by a gentleman who was visiting 

 at a friend's house in Scotland, near which he went to see a 

 nest, which for several summers two Eagles had occupied ; it 

 was upon a rock or a hill. There was a stone within a few 

 yards of it, about six feet long, and nearly as broad, and 

 upon this stone almost constantly, but always when they had 

 young, the gentleman and his servants found a number of 

 grouse, partridges, hares, rabbits, ducks, snipes, ptarmigans, 

 rats, mice, &c., and sometimes kids, fawns, and lambs. 

 When the young Eagles were able to hop the length of this 

 stone, to which there was a narrow road hanging over a 

 dreadful precipice, the Eagles, he learned, often brought hares 

 and rabbits alive, and placed them before their young. 

 Sometimes, it seems, hares, rabbits, rats, &c., not being suffi- 

 ciently weakened by wounds, got off from the young ones 

 while they were amusing themselves with them; and one 

 day a rabbit escaped into a hole, where the old Eagle could 

 not find it. The parent bird another day brought to her 

 young ones the cub of a fox, which, after it had fought well, 

 and desperately bitten the young ones, attempted to make 

 its escape up the hill, and would, in all probability, have 

 accomplished it, had not the shepherd, who was watching 

 the motion of the Eagles with a view to shoot them, which 

 they do with bullets (Swan-shot not being able to penetrate 

 their feathers), prevented it. 



As the Eagles kept what might be called such an excellent 

 storehouse, whenever visitors came unexpectedly, the owner 

 said he was in the frequent habit of sending his servants to 

 see what his neighbours the birds had to spare ; and that they 



