GOLDEN EAGLE. 15 



this business are they oftentimes, when engaged in discussing the 

 meal their craft or still vigilance, or fierce impetuous speed and 

 dash has secured for them. Often, too, not a little sleepy and 

 heavy are they after having been lucky enough to secure a large 

 prey, and greedy enough to stuff themselves full with it. 



the bird which stands at the head of the family and alike 

 deserves and does credit to his rank is the 



3. GOLDEN EAGLE (Aquila chrysaetos). 



It seems almost too tame to talk of an " Eagle's nest," and we 

 seem almost to feel as if different words might well be applied to 

 the nursery-structure of the King of Birds, and that of the tiny 

 Tom-tit or the Wren. So independently of the nice, simple, 

 old meaning of the word eyry * which makes it so suitable as 

 applied to the egg-home of the grand kingly birds, called Eagles, 

 we feel a sort of satisfaction in limiting the use of the word eyry 

 to the Eagle's nest alone. 



No easy matter is it always to cultivate a visiting acquaint- 

 ance with an Eagle. His home is not in a place easy of access 

 co any but himself, or those, like himself, up-borne on wings , 

 On rock platforms, not too scanty in size, in mountainous 

 districts, and guarded by rugged, stern, precipitous rock-walls, 

 utterly forbidding, in almost every case, access by human 

 members from below, and not often to be safely reached from 

 above, the great pile which forms the nest is usually built. 

 Sometimes, but very rarely by comparison, it may be found on 

 some large, possibly shattered forest-trunk amid some wild, 

 seldom-approached scene of loneliness or desolation. It is four to 

 five feet in diameter, made of sticks of no mean size and length, 

 sometimes lined with softer materials, sometimes not ; the new or 

 more recently constructed nest placed upon those of last year and 

 other preceding years ; and would require a willing and able 

 labourer to clear it thoroughly away, and no slight touch of the 

 quality of the gate-bearing Jewish hero in the juvenile nest- 

 seeker who might aspire to carry off such a trophy of his nesting 

 exploits. The site chosen for the nest-pile too is almost invari- 

 ably one which commands a wide, unhindered look-out ; partly, 

 it is likely, under the influence of the strong instinct of vigilance 

 in self-preservation, partly also for the advantages offered b^ 

 such a dwelling-place towards the detection of a distant prey. 



The number of eggu deposited is usually two, sometimes 



* Probably from Saxon Eghe (g sounded like y) an egg. The modern 

 English form of the word would be "Eggery" therefore; the old English 

 form Eyry, or ^Syrie. Chaucor (about 1400) wrote ey for egg. 



