14 BRITISH BIRDS. 



determined that, as the killing of the birds seemed out 

 of the question, the tree should be cut down, and then 

 it was supposed that the eagles would quit the neigh- 

 bourhood altogether. This expectation proved to be 

 correct. The eagles returned at night, but the tree, on 

 the topmost and blighted boughs of which their nest 

 had so long rested, was now lying on the ground. 

 What could then be done ? They made some circles 

 about it, uttering shrill and plaintive cries, and then 

 they departed to find a new abode ; it was thought, in 

 one of the islet bays, with which that part of the coast 

 abounds. 



That children have been carried away by eagles ap- 

 pears to be well attested. A white-tailed eagle built its 

 nest on Tintholn, in the Feroe islands, and one day 

 darted down on a child which was lying at a little dis- 

 tance from its mother, and bore it away. The rock 

 where the nest was constructed was so steep towards the 

 summit, that the most courageous and experienced bird- 

 catchers had never ventured to climb it ; but a mother's 

 love was not to be thus baffled : the agonised parent 

 encountered the task, and reached the top, but unhap- 

 pily too late ; her little one was there, but it was dead, 

 and partly devoured. 



Another case of the same kind had happily a different 



