92 BRITISH BIRDS. 



according to locality, and may be on rocks, trees, or the ground. Iii the 

 inland districts the birds usually select a rocky islet in the middle of a 

 loch, where they either build their bulky nest on some ledge of the sloping 

 groimd, in a tree, or on the rocks, as occasion offers. Sometimes a site is 

 chosen at some distance from the water in small open woods ; but such 

 instances are rare. Inland rocks, too, are often selected, in similar places 

 to those which the Golden Eagle frequents broken cliffs, often quite easy 

 of access from above or below. But the most characteristic eyries of this 

 bird in our islands are on the coast, built high up in the almost inaccessible 

 rocks, hundreds of feet above an ever turbid sea, and in situations to which 

 none but the most intrepid climbers dare venture. Some nests in these 

 situations are indeed quite inaccessible, and the birds have remained in un- 

 disturbed possession from time immemorial. Two of these were visited by 

 Dixon, who describes them as follows : " One was, in the season of 1881, 

 in the terrible cliffs of the ' Storr ' rocks in Skye, its precise locality being 

 unknown, although the pair of birds might be seen almost daily entering 

 or quitting the rocks, or sailing in circles high in air above them. The 

 other safely rests on the breast of one of Macleod's ' Maidens/ also on the 

 coast of Skye ; and I was informed that these nests have been tenanted for 

 a great many seasons, presumably by the same owners. It may be the 

 'witching force of fancy; but the rocks which contain an Eagle's nest 

 seem the grandest in the whole district, and the ones from which the most 

 uninterrupted view may be obtained. Let us, while standing in this eyrie, 

 endeavour to convey a word -picture of the scene around us. Far below 

 are the deep-green waters of the ocean. On every side, and towering 

 far above our heads, are the beetling cliffs, crag beyond crag, clothed 

 with stunted herbage and here and there broken up into turfy banks. 

 On these banks the sea-pinks and the primroses are full of fairest blooms, 

 lending a delicious fragrance to the bracing air, now made resonant with 

 the barking cry of the male Eagle, perched on yonder rock-stack angry 

 at our intrusion, although too timid to evince his displeasure in a more 

 marked degree. The female Eagle, too, must be included in this picture. 

 She is high in air above us, occasionally sweeping past the face of the cliff, 

 well out of gunshot, and showing her anger by thrusting out her legs 

 and expanding her sharp talons, as though anxious to seize us in their 

 fierce grasp. Now an examination of the platform on which we stand. 

 Here and there are scattered the large bones of various fish; and just 

 on the edge of the nest a few Puffin's feet and an entire beak of 

 that bird, together with numerous castings and droppings of the old 

 Eagles on every side. The nest itself is a bulky structure evidently 

 the accumulation of years, flat in form, and about five feet in diameter. 

 It is made of large and small sticks, matted slightly together, yet firm in 

 texture, a few branches of heather, some of them quite recently obtained, 



