British Birds, their Nests and Eggs. 131 



Although eagles are now more than rare in 

 Britain, there was a time when they bred among 

 the crags of Cumbria. Gray and Sir Humphrey 

 Davy watched the eagles in their eyries, and the 

 former tells how he saw them robbed of their 

 young. To say nothing of the carnage made 

 on hares, grouse, and waterfowl, these birds 

 during the breeding season destroyed a lamb 

 daily. It is no wonder that the farmers, shep- 

 herds, and dalesfolk were careful to plunder the 

 eyries, though this was not done without very 

 considerable risk. In one case a man was 

 lowered down the rocks a distance of fifty 

 fathoms, and during the descent he had to 

 protect himself against the attacks of the parent 

 birds. Year by year the eggs or eaglets were 

 taken, and as their presence was injurious to the 

 interests of the farmers, the latter were willing 

 to pay for their extermination. If the nest 

 contained young birds, these were to be the 

 cliff-climber's remuneration ; but if eggs, every 

 neighbouring farmer paid for each egg five 

 shillings. The nests were formed of the 

 branches of trees, and lined with coarse grass 

 and bents that grew on the neighbouring rocks. 

 On the eagles being so frequently robbed of 

 their young, they became unsettled and removed 

 from crag to crag. On one mighty escarpment 

 more inaccessible than the rest they nested for 

 fourteen consecutive years. These eagles and their 

 progenitors had probably bred in the near vicinity 



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