THE EAGLE. 103 



scarcely ever returned without some dainty dishes for his table- 

 game of all kinds being rather the better than the worse for 

 being kept a certain time. When the gentleman or his 

 servants carried off things from the shelf or table near the 

 nest (for it was a work of great hazard to approach the nest 

 itself), the Eagles lost no time in bringing another supply ; 

 but when they did not take them away, the old ones loitered 

 about, and were very inactive, amusing themselves with their 

 young, till the stock of food had nearly come to an end. 



While the hen Eagle was hatching, the table or shelf on 

 the rock was generally kept well furnished for her use : and 

 when she was in that state, or the Eaglets very young, the 

 male bird generally tore a wing from the fowls for her, or a 

 leg from the animals captured. These Eagles, as is the case 

 with most rapacious birds, would not permit their young, 

 after they had grown up, to build a nest, or live near them, 

 but drove them off to a considerable distance. This gentleman 

 did not learn whether these Eagles were in the habit of sparing 

 lambs, kids, &c, in their own immediate neighbourhood, 

 which it has been said they do in some places. Thus, in the 

 Shiant Islands, a cluster of wild and retired rocks, situated 

 amongst the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, the 

 natives assert that the Eagles, which are, or rather were, very 

 numerous there, particularly in the breeding season, scrupu- 

 lously abstained from providing their young ones with animals 

 belonging to the island in which they had taken up their 

 abode, invariably transporting them from neighbouring islands, 

 often some miles distant. Their mode of catching the moun- 

 tain deer was by pouncing down and fixing their talons 

 between the poor animal's horns, flapping at the same time 

 with their powerful wings, which so terrified the deer, that 

 they lost all command over themselves, and setting off at 

 full speed, usually tumbled down some rock, where they were 

 either killed, or so disabled as to become an easy prey to the 

 Eagles. 



Probably this instinctive mode of catching running animals 

 is common to all large birds of prey, and may have led to the 



