HIGHLAND HAUNTS OF EAGLES 179 



Eagle flaps across the glen at an immense altitude. 

 He circles majestically a time or so, then vanishes 

 over the sky-line. 



Now leave the glen, and work up diagonally 

 to a crest which overlooks the nest, perhaps eighty 

 yards away. This crest forms, in fact, one of the 

 sides of the ravine the Eagles have selected for their 

 nursery. A picturesque spot it is too : a streamlet 

 brawls down from the heights above through a 

 chasm in the rock, and the gorge itself, narrow at 

 first, now widens out (where the eyrie is) into a 

 small, natural amphitheatre, whose rugged slopes 

 and massive bluffs are decorated with an irregular 

 array of stunted birches. 



Much snow still wreathes outstanding pinnacle 

 and M pad "; winter, as yet, will not be denied. 



This Eagle sits lightly : the moment we top 

 the sky-line she slips off silently, sneaking close 

 in along and under the shadow of the cliff-face in 

 a guilty fashion, which of itself would betoken a 

 nest, did we not know of it already. She greatly 

 resembles a huge Buzzard. Then a mile away and 

 more she flies, only returning when we have left 

 the nest some time, when from the glen we enjoy 

 the spectacle of three Eagles soaring above the 

 gorge the owners of the nest and an odd male. 



Now then ! Down this side by a deer * * pass ' ' ; 

 up that by a half scramble, half climb; then along 

 a track in the long, wiry heather, which leads 

 right past and within four feet of the eyrie. Just 



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