ANECDOTES. 175 



rifled flock, rose again a moment after, bearing off a 

 lamb in his talons. As they mounted into the air, the 

 poor little thing bleated piteously, and struggled so 

 hard that for a time it seemed as though it must 

 escape. But the tyrant's grip was too tight; and 

 having no guri with him, wherewith to stop the 

 marauder in his career, Gillespie could only watch 

 until both captor and caught were lost in the opposite 

 heights of Creag-na- Sturm. On another occasion he 

 saw an eagle seize a lamb in the same manner, but 

 before they had travelled far, the lamb, by a sudden 

 jerk, managed to free itself; and the eagle, on seeing 

 the fox-hunter, went off without its prey, though it was 

 killed on the spot by the fall. It is not often however 

 that this noble bird commits any depredations on the 

 flock. Indeed I have heard it argued, and I believe it 

 to be true, that the eagle is rather an advantage than 

 otherwise on a Highland farm. Though he certainly 

 is occasionally guilty of serious harm, his attacks are 

 chiefly confined to the mountain -hare, which in some 

 districts is so very numerous, and so destructive to the 

 pasture intended for the sheep, that it requires thinning ; 

 and thus the eagle, instead of being a subject fit only 

 for extirpation, serves rather to remove a nuisance and 

 befriend the cause of the farmer. If he does on a 

 chance emergency make his foray on the fold, the loss 

 to the owner after all is but small, compared with the 

 numbers which become victims to the cunning of the 

 fox, or perish by falling down the rocks. And surely 

 a Highland farmer, with his fifteen thousand sheep, can 

 well afford to lose half a hundred in the year without 

 missing them. 



The following is an incident which occurred to our 

 hero, in those halcyon days of sporting freebootery 



