GOLDEN EAGLE. 



.101 



mountains or overlooking a loch, but always in a commanding situ- 

 ation, and with a broad uninterrupted view of the surrounding country. 

 The selected rock is usually a rugged one, partly a broken bank clothed 

 with grass and ferns, and partly a precipitous cliff, the place in which the 

 is made usually being sheltered by the overhanging rock. But the 

 Golden Eagle does not always select an inland site, and occasionally 

 breeds on maritime cliffs. An account of an eyrie in such a situation 

 Avill doubtless prove interesting ; for it certainly is the exception, not the 

 rule, to find the bird breeding there. Dixon on this occasion made the 

 following notes : " One of the principal objects of my visit to the Western 

 Isles in the early summer months of 1881 was for the purpose of trying to 

 make myself acquainted with the Golden Eagle, his habits and his nest, in 

 his own wild mountain solitudes. But the Golden Eagle is now a scarce 

 bird. Time was when almost all the wild rugged cliffs possessed their pair 

 of birds ; but now, alas ! the Golden Eagle's race is well nigh run in 

 Britain, and one is bound to confess that, if protection is not soon vouch- 

 safed to this companion of the wild Highland scenery, it will soon cease to 

 be. I chose the island of Skye for my researches ; and for the first week 

 of my visit there the chances of making acquaintance with the bird seemed 

 small. All the keepers and the shepherds I questioned on the subject gave 

 me disheartening reports one keeper having shot one of these noble birds 

 the previous winter, and none had been seen on his land since ; another had 

 trapped the bird some few seasons ago, but said it had become very scarce ; 

 while a third proudly showed me the feet and heads of several Golden Eagles 

 nailed to his dog-kennels ! All agreed, however, that in this part of Skye 

 (Portree) the Eagle was not to be met with ; and I began to despair. Was the 

 lordly Golden Eagle to be found or not ? Contemporary writers of quite 

 recent date speak of finding the bird here ; but has the unwarranted perse- 

 cution already done its work and banished him from the glens and mountains 

 of Skye for ever ? Such were my thoughts, when one evening I had the rare 

 fortune to meet with a gentleman sheep-farmer of Skye, who informed me 

 that there was a Golden Eagle's eyrie on his farm, and that one of his 

 shepherds trapped the female bird that very day, and that he was taking 

 it with him to have it preserved in Inverness. No time was to be 

 lost, and I made a few hasty arrangements for an early start in the 

 morning to the place, some four and twenty miles away on the west 

 coast of Skye. 



After providing myself with the assistance of three shepherds and a 

 long coil of rope, we started forth to harry Aquila's lordly castle. A four- 

 miles tramp over the mountains in the bracing morning air served to 

 nerve me for the task I had before me. The sun was just rising over the 

 distant hills; a raven was croaking dismally from the 'Storr;' a pair of 

 Peregrines were sailing in graceful circles high in air above; and the 



