8 GOLDEN EAGLE 



or heather. Mr. Woolley gives by far the most graphic 

 description of the nest of this species. He writes : " A 

 nest is generally five or six feet in its greatest width, con- 

 siderably less on the top. Sometimes the mass of materials 

 would fill a cart ; but in other situations there is no great 

 quantity. The very largest of the sticks used may be an 

 inch in diameter, but most of them are less. Upon these 

 is laid freshly gathered heather, and in one instance large 

 sprigs of Scotch fir, broken off for the purpose. The top 

 part is composed of fern, grass, moss, or any other . con- 

 venient material, but principally (and, as far as I have 

 seen, invariably) of tufts of Luzula sylvatica, which, by 

 the time the eggs are hatched, are still fresh and green 

 towards the outside of the nest, but dried up in the centre 

 with the heat of the bird's body (so as to look) like little 

 flattened pine-apple tops. Once I saw this in a great mea- 

 sure replaced by tufts of a kind of Carex or Nardus. The 

 hollow of the nest is never deep ; but whilst the eggs are 

 unhatched, it is often pretty regular and sharp at the inner 

 edge, and it is not more than a foot from the back wall of 

 rock, close to which the soft materials are generally packed. 

 There is little interlacing of the material, but the whole struc- 

 ture, whilst it appears loose, is yet so firm that it scarcely 

 springs at all with the weight of a man." The hen sits very 

 close. The young are sent away by the parent birds before 

 winter sets in. 



The eggs, laid towards the end of the month of March 

 or the beginning of April, generally two in number, but in 

 some cases only one, and in others three, and of a rather 

 oval shape, are white, greyish, or yellowish white, and some- 

 times completely mottled or marbled over with light russet 

 brown. Varieties in the coloration of the eggs are numerous ; 



