360 



EAGLE. 



need not wonder that it has come in for its full share 

 of the exaggerations ; yet, in spite of the exaggera- 

 tions, it ie a bird of no small interest to all who love 

 nature, and wish to study its phenomena and economy 

 in the wildest places. 



The fishing of this eagle is not so habitual, neither 

 is it performed in so fine a style, as that of another 

 and smaller species, afterwards to be described ; but 

 still it does occasionally fish, and that in the sea, 

 against the rocky and precipitous shores, which it 

 prefers, as it never comes upon the flat ones unless 

 they are in the neighbourhood of marshes, to which 

 it can make incursions inland. For its permanent 

 residence such places must be lonely, and far from 

 those which are thickly inhabited by mankind, so 

 that the sea-eagle, though much more frequently seen 

 than the golden eagle of the mountains, is still, like 

 that, a bird of wild nature in its general habits. 

 Though not unknown upon any of the wild or cliffy 

 shores of England, where they partake of that lonely 

 character in which it delights, this bird may be 

 considered as more abundant on the western and 

 northern shores of Scotland than on any other of 

 those of Britain. There it may be met with all 

 along the deep bays, or lakes, as they are called, 

 which run far into the land, and are peculiarly wild 

 in their character ; and perhaps there is no place 

 in which it is more common than about Loch Carron 

 and Loch Roan, and the great inland lake Loch 

 Murce. The latter is an exceedingly romantic spot. 

 The cliffs are bold and rugged, and there are trees, 

 some old hollow ones, of large dimensions, on the 

 islets in the loch, or the more romantic places in its 

 vicinity. Upon these, or in the bushes, which are 

 found higher up, chequering the grey of the cliffs 

 with rich green foliage in the summer months, these 

 eagles form their nests ; and as, in that situation, they 

 have both sea and land within the easy range of their 

 wing, they appear to be quite in their element. Their 

 appearance is indeed so common, and their size, and 

 the style of their flight, so conspicuous, that they add 

 not a little to the effect of scenery naturally of the 

 wildest character. 



The breadth of the island at that part is not more 

 than the range of a sea-eagle's flight, and thus they 

 are found on the rocky shore of the east about the 

 Ord of Caithness, and also along the whole of the 

 north of Sutherland, as well as on the west. The 

 northern shore there, from,- Cape Rath eastward, 

 along the whole of Sutherland and great part of 

 Caithness, is as wild as can well be imagined. The 

 current which sweeps through the Pentland Firth 

 alternately to the east and the west, in consequence 

 of its being high water on the one side of the country 

 when it is low water on the other, sweeps the base's 

 of the cliffs with an ever-rolling flood ; and, when the 

 north wind blows in its fury, which it does in the 

 latter part of the season, just before the hills have 

 received their winter covering of snow, the roll of the 

 north sea comes in mountains, and breaks in thunder, 

 so that the whole line of the coast is not only, so to 

 speak, worn to the bones of the mountains, but these 

 are honeycombed into innumerable caves, many of 

 them reaching to a great distance below ground, and 

 some of them perforated at their landward extremities 

 by large apertures to the day, up through which 

 the dashing water spouts in splendid jets, sometimes 

 raising large stones to the height of a good many feet, 

 from which they fall with tremendous crashes back 



again upon the aperture. The resistance of the 

 weight of the stone, if a large one, condenses the air 

 which the surge drives before it into the cavern, till 

 that becomes charged like an air-gun, from which 

 both the stone and the water are literally shot 

 upwards into the air ; and when fishes are abundant 

 near the coast, they are apt to lose command of 

 themselves in the turmoil of the waters, and to be 

 flung upon the rocks by those singularly magnificent 

 jets. On such a shore the sea-eagles are quite in 

 their element, and have associates of more aquatic 

 character to assist them in filling up the picture, 

 Gannets, and skrags, and cormorants, plunging head- 

 long into the waters, divers driving about through 

 the restless surges, gulls wheeling and wailing on 

 the wing, and e.-er and anon dipping down to catch 

 those smaller fishes which come near to the surface, 

 and skuas driving at the gulls, making them disgorge 

 their booty, and catching it ere it falls into the sea. 

 Meanwhile, the sea-eagle sits on the rock, eyeing the 

 tumult of nature, but always now and then making a 

 clutch at the waters for her share of the booty. 



Nor in the more tranquil season of the year is the 

 prey of the eagle less abundant, though she then 

 fin da it of different quality, and in a different situation. 

 The s,hort summer in these northerly places is as 

 much a time of repose as the change from summer to 

 winter is one of turbulence ; and as there is little 

 night, and no absolute darkness, the situation is 

 peculiarly favourable for the breeding of those wading 

 and swimming birds which are twilight feeders. 

 Accordingly, the morasses, and the grassy and rusny 

 margins of the ponds and lakes, are full of the nests 

 of these birds, and during the time that they are 

 there, the sea-eagle fares as well as a fowler as she 

 does as a fisher at other times of the year. 



THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE (Aqidla leucocephalus}. 

 This is an American species, agreeing in its general 

 habits with the white-tailed eagle of Europe, but 

 differing from it in its appearance, and especially in 

 the position of the white, upon which the common 

 names of both are founded. It is usually said that 

 this species is occasionally, or rather not unfrequently, 

 seen in the north of Europe, and it may have been 

 observed there, though there is at least a possibility 

 that the osprey, which is common to both countries, 

 and much more frequently seen on the shores, even 

 in America, than the white-headed eagle, may have 

 been mistaken for it. They both fish, though the 

 osprey is by far the more habitual and the finer fisher 

 of the two, has its plumage of a much more aquatic 

 character, and dashes far more fearlessly into the 

 water. The old osprey, however, has the head white, 

 so white that it has got the popular name of the 

 " bald" buzzard, just as the species under notice has 

 got that of the " bald " eagle. On close inspection 

 of the birds, when they are seen together in an 

 aviary or a museum, it is very easy to distinguish this 

 eagle from the osprey, by the size, the shape, the 

 plumage, and the general air and character. But 

 when we come to examine the larger birds of prey in 

 wild nature, we find our aviary and museum knowledge 

 of much less use to us than we could wish, or even 

 believe, till we actually make the trial. We cannot 

 come so near the birds as that we can be sure of the 

 details of appearance upon which the specific descrip- 

 tions are usually formed. We are not very good 

 judges, even of size, when we change very much the 

 characters of our locality ; and one who, for the first 



