GOLDEN EAGLE 



Aquila chrysaetus 



LTHOUGH the Golden Eagle used to breed in a few 

 favoured localities in England and Wales, its only 

 breeding- places in our Islands at the present day are 

 among- the wilds of the western and northern counties 



O 



of Scotland, in the Hebrides, and in some of the wildest 

 parts of Ireland, though it is fast decreasing in the 

 latter country. 



The home of the Golden Eagle is among the vast and dreary solitudes 

 of the Highlands, where on every side rise snow -clad mountains, their 

 summits shrouded in mist. Amid the wild glens, stupendous grey rocks, 

 and vast slopes of heather and huge boulders, where the hoarse croaks of 

 the Raven or the roar of the mountain torrent alone breaks the silence, the 

 Eagle has his home. Here are his hunting-grounds, and to those wild 

 fastnesses must one go to see the king of birds in all his glory. He is not 

 always to be seen in any particular glen, except during the breeding-season, 

 for he is a wanderer, and covers vast tracts of country in search of his prey. 

 Sometimes in the course of his wanderings he visits the Lowland counties, 

 and may be seen sailing majestically over the Border hills. 



The appearance of this regal bird as he soars on outstretched wings 

 is indeed magnificent. Watch him as he slowly flaps out from some lonely 

 pinnacle of rock with his broad wings glistening in the sun, now soaring 

 with them fully expanded, gliding majestically round and round in wide 

 sweeping circles, the tips of the primaries separated like fingers and turned 

 up slightly, his tail turning from side to side like the rudder of some ship. 

 Slowly he rises, with hardly any perceptible motion of his wings, till he floats 

 high in the heavens, a mere speck against the blue. 



The food of the Golden Eagle is somewhat varied : its principal food 

 VOL. in. 2 c 97 



