84 A VANISHING BIRD 



that magnificent country offering many attrac- 

 tions to a bird of its habits. Nearly all the bold 

 headlands of Skye are frequented by at least 

 one pair of sea eagles, and it is at no time a 

 difHcult matter to get a sight of them. . . . On 

 one property alone there were recently six breed- 

 ing places.' But to this passage there is sub- 

 joined the following significant note : 



1 It is impossible, however, to conceal the fact 

 that if the present destruction of eagles con- 

 tinues, we shall soon have to reckon this species 

 among the extinct families of our "feathered 

 nobility." During the last nine years, says my 

 friend Dr. Dewar, a keeper in Skye has shot 

 fifty-seven eagles on a single estate ; and in a 

 letter addressed to myself in November, 1866, 

 by a keeper resident in the west of Ross-shire, 

 the confession is made that during an experience 

 of twelve years, he had shot no less than fifty- 

 two eagles, besides taking numbers of eggs and 

 young. 



' Captain Cameron of Glen Brittle also in- 

 formed me he has now seen as many as sixty- 

 two sea eagles killed in Skye. No species of 

 eagle could long survive such persecution/ 



In Orkney they were, about the same date, 

 a very common species. Harvie- Brown and 

 Buckley, in the Orkney volume of their monu- 



