162 GAME BIRDS AND SHOOTING-SKETCHES 



length reached where the hen sits awaiting the coming 

 of her lord, and giving a scream or rather yelp, for it more 

 resembles the latter, he is immediately answered by her, 

 and the two soon drop on their respective victims and 

 retire to adjacent rocks on which to enjoy their meal. 



Of late years proprietors of deer forests having awoke 

 to the fact that the Eagles were gradually disappearing 

 like so many of our indigenous birds, have justly taken 

 every precaution to stop their destruction. Seven or eight 

 years ago the slaughter of adult birds was very great, and 

 if it had continued at the same rate there would not have 

 been an Eagle left in Scotland ; but now they have greatly 

 increased again, and at the present day there are probably 

 as many Eagles as there ever were. As they do more 

 good than harm in deer forests by killing off the Grouse, 

 Ptarmigan, and Blue Hares, that only interfere with the 

 stalking, there is every reason to preserve them, quite 

 apart from the grandeur and beauty which their presence 

 naturally lends to their magnificent surroundings. 1 



1 Previous to the year 1883 the slaughter of the old Eagles at their 

 nests was almost constant, so much so that these noble birds were threatened 

 with becoming as scarce as the Osprey now is, and in the naturalists' shops 

 in Scotland, three of which annually receive a large number for preservation, 

 every tenth bird received was an adult ; but since then the percentage of old 

 birds killed every year has been gradually diminishing, till in the two 

 seasons of 1888-89 there were only five adults out of about a hundred 

 specimens Mr. Malloch (Perth), Mr. McLeay (Inverness), and Mr. Small 

 (Edinburgh) received for preservation. It would be very difficult to judge 

 how many of the birds bred in Scotland survive, since during the first five 

 years of their existence they are wanderers on the face of the earth, and 

 being driven out of their birthplaces in the safe retreats of the deer forests, 

 are constantly exposed to every imaginable danger from gun or trap, nearly 

 every keeper and shooter being on the look-out for them, so that they stand 

 but a poor chance of escaping. However, so long as the old birds are not 



