EAGLES. 139 



served and their numbers consequently increasing. 

 Their nests are not visible from the banks of the 

 tarn, but I found several among the Scotch firs at 

 a little distance. Would that the protection here 

 afforded to these interesting birds were extended 

 to them generally in the north, as well as to the 

 larger and nobler members of the Falconidff, which 

 have now become exceedingly rare, and appear 

 doomed to total extinction. 



During my many visits to this part of Scotland, 

 I never had the good fortune to see the golden or 

 sea eagle on the wing, along the lower course of 

 the Spey or in the deer-forests of Glenfiddich and 

 Blackwater. It is true that there are no eyries of 

 either species in this district, and it is in such 

 situations as the inland precipices of the Gram- 

 pians, and the sea-cliffs of the northern and 

 western coasts that the principal destruction 

 takes place. The excessive preservation of grouse 

 and the value of the eggs of the golden eagle, 

 Aqnila chrysaetos, to collectors, have principally 

 tended to reduce the numbers of that magnificent 

 bird, while the depredations of the sea eagle, 

 llal'ufctus albic'iUn, among young lambs, with 

 which he occasionally varies his fish diet, have 

 doomed him to persecution by the shepherds as 



