26 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



by no means be a large one ; I have seen two nests of 

 different years in trees on separate islands in one 

 loch, each only about four feet from the ground. I 

 can, at this moment, call to mind nine instances 

 where I know the localities of such island eyries. 

 The old birds do not always calculate the depth of 

 the water, as there is one place at least to which a 

 man may wade ; where swimming is necessary, it is 

 often an affair of danger, as the birds will do their 

 best to drown the enemy with their wings. In two 

 spots I have seen large Scotch firs which have been 

 formerly tenanted by sea eagles ; one by the side of a 

 loch, the other several miles away from any piece of 

 water, in a sort of open wood of similar trees. The 

 nest had been in a fork where three branches met, 20 

 feet high, and as in other cases the main trunk bore 

 its weight. In one instance the crossed and nearly hori- 

 zontal trunks of two small trees formed the support ; 

 one that I have already spoken of was in a small 

 alder-tree, and had been repaired and often frequented 

 by the eagles the season I saw it, yet a hooded crow 

 had eggs in the upper branches, and wild geese and 

 ducks were sitting in the deep moss and long heather 

 within twenty yards. I have not myself met with an 

 instance of the Golden Eagle breeding in a tree or 

 in a sea-cliff, but on the other hand several cases of 

 the sea eagles breeding in a rock inland, though not 

 many miles away from the ocean : two such nests 

 that I visited were in small rocks of easy access, in 

 every respect like golden eagles', and in one the 

 hen showed the same unwillingness to leave her eggs. 

 In the summer of 1848 I took out of their nest, on a 



