HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



epithet of the bird of heaven. Of all others 

 also, he has the quickest eye ; but his sense 

 of smelling is far inferior to that of the vul- 

 ture. He never pursues, therefore, but in 

 sight ; and when he has seized his prey, he 

 stoops from his height, as if to examine its 

 weight, always laying it on the ground before 

 he carries it off. As his wing is very power- 

 ful, yet, as he has but little suppleness in the 

 joints of the leg, he finds it difficult to rise 

 when down ; however, if not instantly pur- 

 sued, he finds no difficulty in carrying off 

 geese and cranes. He also carries away 

 hares, lambs, and kids; and often destroys 

 fawns and calves, to drink their blood, and 

 carries a part of their flesh to his retreat. In- 

 fants themselves, when left unattended, have 

 been destroyed by these rapacious creatures ; 

 which probably gave rise to the fable of Gany- 

 mede's being snatched up by an eagle to hea- 

 ven. 



An instance is recorded in Scotland of two 

 children being carried off by eagles ; but for- 

 tunately they received no hurt by the way; 

 and, the eagles being pursued, the children 

 were restored unhurt out of the nests to the 

 affrighted parents. 



The eagle is thus at all times a formidable 

 neighbour ; but peculiarly when bringing up 

 its young. It is then that the female, as well 

 as the male, exert all their force and industry 

 to supply their young. Smith, in his history 

 of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that 

 country got a comfortable subsistence for his 

 family, during a summer of famine, out of an 

 eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of food, 

 which was plentifully supplied by the old 

 ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond 

 the usual time, by clipping their wings, and 

 retarding the flight of the young ; and very 

 probably also, as I have known myself, by so 

 tying them as to increase their cries, which is 

 always found to increase the parent's despatch 

 to procure them provision. It was lucky, 

 however, that the old eagles did not surprise 

 the country-man as he was thus employed, 

 as their resentment might have been danger- 

 ous. 



It happened some time ago, in the same 

 country, that a peasant resolved to rob the nest 

 of an eagle, that had built in a small island in 

 the beautiful lake of Killarney. He accord- 

 ingly stripped, and swam in upon the island 

 \vhile the old ones were away ; and, robbing 

 the nest of its young, he was preparing to swim 

 back, with the eaglets tied in a string ; but 

 while he was yet up to his chin in the water, 

 the old eagles r.eturned, and, missing their 

 young, quickly fell upon the plunderer, and, 

 in spite of all his resistance, despatched him 

 with their beaks and talons. 



In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, 



there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which 

 entitles any person that kills an eagle to a hen 

 out of every house in the parish in which the 

 plunderer is killed. 1 



1 In England and the south of Scotland the golden 

 eagle may be accounted rare, very few districts of the 

 former being adapted to its disposition, or suitable for 

 breeding places. Some parts of Derbyshire are recorded 

 as having possessed eyries ; in the mountainous parts of 

 Wales there are others, and the precipices of Cumber- 

 land and Westmoreland also boasted of them. Upon 

 the wild ranges of the Scottish Border, one or two pairs 

 used to breed, but their nest has not been known for 

 twenty years, though a straggler in winter sometimes is 

 yet seen amidst their defiles. It is not until we really 

 enter the Highlands of Scotland by one of the grand 

 and romantic passes, that this noble bird can be said oc- 

 casionally to occur, and it is not until we reach the very 

 centre of their "wildness," that he can be frequently 

 seen. But the species must be gradually, though surely 

 decreasing, for such is the depredation committed among 

 the flocks during the season of lambing, and which is 

 the time when a large supply of food is required by the 

 parent birds for their young, that every device is em- 

 ployed, and expense incurred by rewards, for their de- 

 struction. From March, 1831, to March, 1834, in the 

 county of Sutherland alone, one hundred and seventy- 

 one old birds, with fifty-three young and eggs, were de- 

 stroyed, which, while it shows that the bird is not of 

 that extreme rarity which is sometimes supposed, it, at 

 the same time, tells us that if the war of extermination 

 be continued, we shall ere lung look in vain for this ap- 

 propriate ornament of our northern landscape. In Ire- 

 land it is generally distributed where the situations are 

 favourable, but at the same time is much more uncom- 

 mon than the sea eagle. The Horn Head, the moun- 

 tain of Rosheen, near Dunfanaghy, Achill Island, and 

 Crowpatric, are mentioned by Mr Thompson as now or 

 formerly containing eyries on their precipices; from 

 Rosheen they have been now driven off, on account of 

 the destruction done to the flocks. The nest, placed on 

 a ledge perfectly inaccessible, was set on fire by burning 

 a lighted brand, and was consumed with its tenants ; 

 the parents have since forsaken a station where they had 

 been attacked in a manner so unusual. 



The eyry of the golden eagle is placed on the face of 

 some stupendous cliff situated inland; the nest is built 

 on a projecting shelve, or on some stumped tree that 

 grows from the rock, generally in a situation perfectly 

 inaccessible without some artificial means, and often out 

 of the reach of shot either from below or from the top of 

 the precipice. It is composed of dead branches, roots 

 of heather, &c., entangled strongly together, and in 

 considerable quantity, but without any lining in the in- 

 side ; the eggs are two in number, white, with pale 

 brown or purplish blotches, most numerous and largest 

 at the thicker end. During the season of incubation, 

 the quantity of food that is procured and brought hither 

 is almost incredible ; it is composed of nearly all the 

 inhabitants, or their young, of those wild districts called 

 forests, which, though indicating a wooded region, are 

 often tracts where for miles around a tree is not seen. 

 Hares, lambs, and the young of deer and roebuck, grouse, 

 black game, ptarmigan, curlews, and plovers, all contri- 

 bute to the feast. 



The manner in which the eagles hunt or survey the 

 ground is by soaring above, often to an immense height; 

 the ascent is performed by circles, a beautiful appearance 

 in flight. When the prey is perceived, it is rushed upon 

 by a rapid and instantaneous sweep ; and surprised ere 

 it can escape, or paralyzed by terror, the object is gene- 

 rally at once seized. The weight of the birds and the 

 great resistance presented to the air by their large bodies 



