THE EAGLE IN ENGLAND 273 



without seeing one or more in that beat of the forest. 

 On the other side of the river also they are comparatively 

 plentiful. Their food consists of all sorts of game, 

 sheep, and lambs. They seem to prefer young deer 

 and hares to anything else. These they kill, though 

 they prefer the former sick, and unable to help them- 

 selves. They are also rather destructive among lambs. 

 An eagle, unless hungry, seems to be a cowardly bird, 

 and rarely attacks anything that seems likely to give 

 it much trouble. Last year I was stalking, and shot a 

 calf by accident, which was coming up beside a hart, in 

 a sort of gulley formed by a rock, thus 



Q 



I was at the point x, and shot the beast at D. The 

 remainder ran over the ridge, about twenty or thirty 

 feet high above them, and I ran after them. I shot a 

 hart at about Q, and ran back to see what I had done at 

 D. There I found my calf, with his eyes already torn 

 out by an eagle, which was sitting on him, and just 

 about to begin a good meal. It must have been very 

 hungry, as after I had shot the calf I was never twenty 

 yards from it, and fired a shot, though I was on the 

 other side of the hill. It was a misty day, which would 

 make a little difference. 



" We often shoot grouse under a kite at the end of 



