White the glens and straths of the south, they always, 

 Weather, if they nest on the slope of a hillside, choose 

 the east side for their unsheltered homes and 

 where to lay their eggs. Do they so love 

 the bleak wind of the east ? Hardly any bird 

 takes so little trouble with the nest : often it is 

 but the frost-hardened delve of a cow's hoof, a 

 tangle of bent, or the hollow of a misplaced 

 stone. I have heard that this is truer of the 

 mainland than of the isles, but I have not 

 found it so. Last March or April I remember 

 that on the long, low-hilled and mainly * upland' 

 island where I then was, not a single lapwing's 

 nest but was on the east slope of grassy brae or 

 sloping moor or pasture. But though he could 

 not say a word on so strange, almost so inex- 

 plicable a habit, he could be positive as to the 

 age of the eagle, and especially as to one aged 

 iolair that he often saw on Maol-Aitionnach, 

 the great hill that was half the world and more 

 to him : namely, that the king-bird lived to be 

 three hundred years. And he computed it 

 thus : that an eagle lives three times less than 

 an oak, and three times more than a deer. 

 There is a familiar proverb that * Tri aoisfeidh 

 aoisfirein ; tri aoisfirein aois crsoibh dharaich? 

 ' Thrice the age of a deer, the age of an eagle ' 

 ('ferain,' 'fireun,' and 'fiolair' are variants of 

 * iolair,' whose more ancient name is 'antar' 



334 



