IN THE HIGHLANDS 151 



I often wonder why some County Councils take the 

 trouble to forbid eagles being destroyed. How can the 

 killing of eagles be prevented ? Do the County Councils 

 wish no traps to be set for foxes, wild-cats, ravens, or 

 hoodie crows ? And if the traps are to be set for these 

 very destructive beasts and birds, how are the eagles to 

 be kept out of the traps ? Is it the wish of the wiseacres 

 of the County Councils that an eagle with both or even 

 one of its feet smashed should be let go to die a lingering 

 death of starvation ? 



The best place for a trap to be set for foxes or hoodies 

 is a tiny island in a pool of water, the bait to be half 

 in and half out of the water, and the big trap set on the 

 top of the hummock of sphagnum moss just immediately 

 above the bait. I dare say very few County Councillors 

 are aware that an eagle depends entirely on his talons 

 for attack or defence, so that if one of them is fixed in 

 a trap you may put your hand or even your face close to 

 his head and he will not touch you. Eagles are terribly 

 destructive . They tear the live rabbits out of the rabbit- 

 trappers' traps, kill lambs wholesale, and the very sight 

 of one scares every grouse off the ground. Only last 

 summer an eagle was seen attacking a hogg (year-old 

 sheep) on our ground and had to be driven away. The 

 Koss-shire County Council very wisely does not forbid 

 the killing of eagles. 



Apropos of eagles, I shall describe what happened in 

 our heronry, which we greatly valued. It was on an 

 island in the Fionn Loch, which was overgrown with a 

 jungle of stunted birches, rowans, and hollies, the twenty 

 or more herons' nests being in some cases so near the 



