]<> IIIUTISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



three. They are commonly of a dull whitish ground, mottlcc 

 or marbled nearly or quite all over with a sort of rusty hue. 



The young ones, while yet too young to leave the nest, are 

 amply catered for by their parents. Lists are sometimes given 

 of the spoils, feathered and four-footed, fo'ind in what may be 

 styled the Eagles' larder Black Game, Moor Game, Partridges, 

 Hares, Rabbifs, Lambs, young Roes, and so on, to an amount that 

 would seem hardly credible to one not conversant with the Eagle's 

 power of vision and mighty sweep of wing. Indeed there is a 

 story told of a man in Ireland who got a fair provision for his 

 family in a season of scarcity by no other effort than was requisite 

 in plundering an Eagle's nest of the food brought in by the 

 parent birds tor their young. He is said also to have prolonged 

 the season of supply by preventing the young ones from flying, 

 by clipping their wings as the feathers grew. Instances have 

 been known where the prey seized was human. Professor 

 "Wilson tells a touching story, in a touching way, of an incident 

 of the kind, in which the infant \vas seized as it lay and slept 

 where its mother had placed it, while herself busy not far off in 

 the harvest field, ana carried off by the strong bird to its 

 eyry. The poor mother, frantic with her loss, blind to every- 

 thing but the thought and effort for the recovery of her babe, 

 safely scaled the precipice, high up on which the nest was 

 placed ; though no man, however skilful and expert as a 

 cragsman, had ever dared attempt the ascent ; found her babe 

 alive and unhurt and smiling in her face, descended again a 

 more perilous feat still in safety, and once more on level 

 ground at the foot, swooned helplessly away. The Eagles did 

 not attack her in reality, though their fierce menaces made the 

 spectators tremble. Our boy readers if ever they found an 

 eagle's nest might well need the protection of a good strong 

 cudgel, fearlessly and skilfully wielded, before they succeeded in 

 possessing themselves of one of its eggs. Fig. 1, plate I. 



4. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. (Halweius albicilla). 



Called also Erne, Cinereous Eagle, Sea Eagle. This species 

 a member of another genux, however like the last, breeds amid 

 high, almost inaccessible rocks, in the mountainous solitudes of 

 Scotland, and some of the northernmost British Islands. The 

 aest resembles the Golden Eagle's, but is often more cushioned 

 3ne can hardly say lined, when there is scarcely any cavity or 

 depresLsion to receive the eggs more cushioned with soft material 

 such as heather or sea-weed. This Eagle seldom lays more than 

 *>wo eggs, which in ground-colour are like the Golden Eagle's, but 

 .out often noticeably marked with red. 



