THE SEA EAGLE 83 



mischief by carrying off young or sickly lambs ; 

 and it is doubtless owing to the unceasing war- 

 fare waged against the eagles by the sheep 

 farmers, and in perhaps a lesser degree the 

 keepers in the interest of game, that this species, 

 so recently a marked feature in the bird life of 

 the West Highlands, is now verging on extinc- 

 tion. The rise and rapid spread of the sheep- 

 farming industry in Scotland has been the 

 cause of many changes and the disturbance of 

 many ancient conditions ; and so the erne is 

 but sharing the fate of all that obstructs the 

 march of our restless and ruthless modern 

 times. 



In comparatively recent days the sea eagle 

 was a much commoner species than the golden 

 eagle. Gray 1 says : ' Being a much commoner 

 bird in Scotland than the golden eagle, the sea 

 eagle has never been at any time in the same 

 danger of extinction. Even in 1867 and 1868 

 there were numerous eyries in places which they 

 have occupied from time immemorial. Between 

 Loch Brittle and Copnahow Head, in Skye, for 

 example, nine or ten eyries might have been 

 seen. The Isle of Skye, indeed, may be said to 

 be the headquarters of this conspicuous eagle in 

 the West of Scotland, the entire coast line of 



1 Birds of West of Scotland, 1871. 



