84 GOLDEN-EAGLE AND WHITETAILED-EAGLE 



those days of turgid toil and ceaseless anxiety which follow the 

 incubation of the eggs. 



The eyrie which for eleven long weeks he kept under constant 

 observation was situated in a deer - forest in the heart of the 

 Grampian range. 



His first visit of inspection was paid on May 3, when the nest 

 contained two eggs ; his second on May 19, when two eaglets, about 

 six days' old, lay crouching on a warm lining of heather and thick 

 grass ; the hind-quarters of a rabbit, freshly torn open and partly 

 devoured, lay just beyond the youngsters' reach. For several hours 

 Mr. Macpherson waited in vain for the return of one or other of the 

 old birds to their nursery. At last both parents appeared, approach- 

 ing at a great height. The male apparently was driving his mate 

 towards the corrie, circling round her when she took the wrong 

 direction, and evidently filled with anxiety to secure her return. 

 Having settled on the face opposite the eyrie, after a pause the 

 female crossed boldly and settled on the edge of the nest, where she 

 gave the young their evening meal, tearing up the remains of the 

 rabbit to which we have already referred. After this she settled 

 down to brood them. A week later, May 25, Mr. Macpherson 

 returned to the nest to find but one young one. This was the smaller 

 of the two, and proved to be a male ; the larger one had presumably 

 died and been removed. The carcass of a grouse freshly plucked 

 and disembowelled, and the hind-quarters of a young rabbit lay on 

 the edge of the nest to form the youngster's next meal. Again an 

 interval of two days, and before the nest is visited the eaglet had 

 evidently just been fed, and lay snugly tucked up, and sound asleep, 

 while sleet and piercing gusts of wind raged all round, from which 

 he was protected by an overhanging ledge of rock. An hour later 

 the female arrived, and she was almost immediately followed by the 

 male, bringing the hind-quarters of a rabbit. Satisfied that all was 

 well, both left ; but later the female returned to remove the fouled 

 and dirty sticks from the edge of the nest. 



