Field and Covert Poachers. 235 



remaining eagle left the district, but returned the 

 following spring with another. This pair built 

 during fourteen years in Borrowdale, but finally 

 abandoned it for Eskdale. At the last-mentioned 

 place they were also disturbed, and the female 

 eagle being afterwards shot the male flew off and 

 returned no more. 



The white-tailed sea eagles bred upon the 

 rocks of a towering limestone escarpment over- 

 looking a recess of the sea, and fed upon gulls 

 and terns. The vast peat mosses which stretched 

 away for miles below them abounded with hares 

 and grouse, and among these the birds made 

 devastation. Year after year they carried off 

 their young from the same cliffs, and now return 

 only at rare intervals when storm driven. The 

 peregrines have the eagles' eyrie, and are only 

 eagles in miniature. The sea-fowl form their 

 food in summer, as do wild ducks in winter. At 

 this latter season the osprey or " fish-hawk " 

 comes to the bay and the still mountain tarns, 

 adding wildness to the scenes which his con- 

 geners have left never to return. 



Those who have recently advocated a close 

 time for owls have, fortunately, been fore- 

 stalled by legislation. The Act of 1881 affords 

 protection to all wild birds during the breeding 

 season, and, although exemption is allowed in 

 favour of owners and occupiers of land, owls, 

 being included in the schedule, may not be de- 



