IX 



WHITE-TAILED EAGLE 



jERY few pairs of this large bird of prey are now to 

 be found in the islands of the North ; but it is to 

 be hoped that the careful protection accorded to 

 them will help to make the species multiply. 

 Unfortunately for the birds themselves, the young 

 take to wandering in the autumn, and a season seldom passes 

 without one or more of the London papers having a short para- 

 graph in its columns to the effect that a fine ' Golden ' Eagle 

 has been captured or shot in the southern counties. However, 

 on one or two of the great sea cliffs of the northern and western 

 islands of Scotland the Erne still breeds. Gray, in his interest- 

 ing book on the birds of Scotland, has a very good chapter on 

 this bird, in which he gives one or two instances of large 

 numbers of Sea Eagles being captured, and says that no bird 

 can possibly stand this vast destruction. It is really a matter 

 for surprise that there are any left at the present day, for 

 many years have elapsed since his book was published. 



When at rest, the White-tailed Eagle looks an unhappy and 

 unutterably miserable bird. To see him sitting on a rock, with 

 all his feathers ruffled and his head drawn in and almost hidden 

 in his breast and back, one would imagine that he was the most 

 dejected of birds. But give him the chance of a hunt ; let him 

 see an opportunity for some sport, and he instantly changes into 



44 



