EAGLES. 301 



were, out of their own hunting grounds. In Clare 

 Island, in the years 1868 to 1870, I repeatedly saw 

 Eagles, and very close. No guns were allowed on 

 the island, and the birds seemed to be aware of it, 

 for they were most daring, and by no means as 

 wild as on the mainland. They did an immense 

 amount of damage both to lambs and geese ; there 

 were no hares there. The Eagles used to watch 

 the sheep lambing, and carry off the lambs to their 

 nest in the inaccessible sea-cliff at Knockmore. 

 They always hunt against the wind, so that return- 

 ing with their prey the wind helps them. On this 

 island, on which I was storm-bound in January, 

 1868, for three weeks, I frequently saw these birds 

 within forty yards of me. 



" On the mainland, on the road between West- 

 port and Killery Bay, I have frequently seen Eagles 

 hunting in couples, but at a considerable height, 

 as if they knew guns were to be feared. Tame 

 geese would always tell by their noise when Eagles 

 were about, no matter what height they hunted at, 

 but hares were their chief food in this district. One 

 year I rented a mountain in Mayo, to the north of 

 Newport, called Glenlaura, and when getting to the 

 top of it, I lay down to rest, and a grand Golden 

 Eagle sailed within sixty yards of me. On the top 

 I found four newly-killed hares, no part eaten 

 except the inside. 



"In 1872, when surveying the twelve Pins of 

 Connemara, I had ascended a mountain to the 

 east of the Maam Valley, and at a height of 2,000 

 feet I was rounding the top, below which was a 

 perpendicular escarpment, and an Eagle sailed off 



