THE GOLDEN EAGLE 15 



scarce. But when food is abundant on the hillsides he is 

 truly a voracious feeder, and levies a costly tribute on the 

 sheep-farms. I have known him take as many as thirty- 

 five lambs from one Highland sheep-farm alone in a single 

 season. The mountain or blue hare which lives among the 

 barren stony summits of the hills is a favourite quarry ; the 

 Blackcock and the Eed Grouse which crow so merrily from 

 the fern brakes and the heather are taken unawares ; as are 

 also the Plovers and the Curlews which visit the upland 

 moors to rear their young. When hard pressed for food he not 

 unfrequently makes a meal on carrion, and is often taken in 

 the shepherds' traps when baited with a dead lamb or hare. 

 Nothing comes amiss to this bold freebooter, especially when 

 its young are hatched anything in the shape of flesh is borne 

 eagerly away. The Golden Eagle is extremely fond of bathing ; 

 and I have sometimes seen him stand for half an hour or more 

 in a pool of water and scatter it over his plumage. 



The Golden Eagle is one of the first birds to see about 

 nesting duties. Winter still reigns amongst the mountains 

 when this noble bird begins to build his nest, and the eggs are 

 often laid when the moors and hills are buried deep in snow. 

 He evidently times the date of his operations to a nicety ; for 

 the lambing season is at its height when his young are being 

 reared and a plentiful supply of food is obtainable. I am of 

 opinion that Golden Eagles pair for life. For years and 

 years the same locality is frequented by a pair of birds. 

 Each season the old nest is renovated and patched up, or a 

 new nest entirely is built close to the remains of the old one. 

 An inland site is generally selected, on the precipitous 

 sides of some lonely glen or on a ledge of a beetling crag 

 amongst the mountains, but sometimes a shelf on the ocean 

 cliffs is chosen. Stray with me to the wild cliffs that over- 

 hang the tempestuous Minch on the west coast of Skye. 

 Here the Golden Eagle still breeds in one or two chosen 



