70 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



fine strong character about them, which is difficult to under- 

 stand without seeing the egg. The nests of both kinds are 

 generally formed of sticks of an astonishing size, frequently 

 as large in diameter as a man's arm these, too, brought 

 from a considerable distance ; sometimes it is impossible to 

 say where they can have procured them. The white-tailed 

 eagle does not hesitate to use the coarse sea-ware and tangle 

 for her nest. They build not only in the steepest possible 

 cliff, but generally take advantage of some overhanging shelf, 

 which, concealing the nest from above, makes it doubly 

 secure : occasionally, however, I have known a golden eagle 

 build in a place where an expert climber could reach the 

 nest without the aid of ropes. 



The remains of game of all kinds common in the moun- 

 tains are found in great abundance about their nests when 

 they have young ; lambs also, and near the deer-forests young 

 red deer, are taken up to the nest. I cannot say whether 

 they carry up the latter animals whole or not, but their 

 remains always form part of the larder found at an eagle's 

 abode, if it is in a situation where deer abound. The weight 

 of a new-born deer calf is not great, and once in the air the 

 eagle would carry one easily enough. Instances have occurred 

 of an eagle attacking a person when engaged in robbing her 

 nest, but generally speaking they have a proper dread of 

 man and fire-arms. Nevertheless I have known some well- 

 authenticated instances of this fear being entirely put aside ; 

 indeed it could scarcely be otherwise with so powerful and 

 fierce a bird as an eagle, when so weak and timid a bird as a 

 partridge has 1 een known to fly at and strike a man's legs 

 like a game-cock on her young ones being too nearly 

 approached. This I have seen happen, and therefore I can 

 easily believe that an eagle may do the same in defence of 

 her young. 



The actual damage done to game by eagles is, in my 

 opinion, comparatively small, the favourite food of these birds 

 being the mountain hare, and every sportsman knows that 

 the fewer of these animals he has on his ground the better : 

 where they increase too rapidly (and no animal does increase 

 more quickly) they become a perfect plague to grouse dogs, 

 for however well broken your pointers and setters may be, the 

 manner in which mountain hares run cannot fail to make 

 the dogs fidgety and anxious, besides tainting the ground. 

 Instead of running clear away when started, like the com- 



