HIGHLAND HAUNTS OF EAGLES 185 



somewhere below us several times. A nest here 

 tooP Possibly, since the shepherd shows us a last 

 year's eyrie built in a spot which would shame any 

 species which habitually employs an easy site. A 

 straggling outcrop of rock, nowhere more than 

 20 ft. in height, breaks the monotony of the lower 

 slopes of the mountain, and on a large grassy slab, 

 only about five feet from level ground and with a 

 step formation leading up to it, an Eagle had 

 elected to nest. Courting robbery if you like. 

 If Eagles will nest in such ridiculous spots, they 

 almost deserve to be plundered. These were of 

 course. 



Before examining this spot, however, we had 

 worked the main and altogether higher and steeper 

 escarpment far above. There we found three 

 eyries, tw r o of which were old, the third new; but 

 there were no eggs in it, either then or at any fur- 

 ther date, we heard. Perhaps the hen here is now 

 barren, possibly the eggs had already been taken; 

 for most Eagles are sitting by or before April 10th 

 to day was the 13th. No mischance had befallen 

 the birds either, since both were seen, of which 

 one, alighting clumsily on a grassy slope below 

 the new eyrie, tore up great beakfuls of wood-rush, 

 only to drop them again. 



The greater part of the succeeding day (my 

 friend having gone off to explore a haunt of the 

 Grey -Lag Goose) I spent there in searching for a 

 used nest, but the best I could do was to find 



