102 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Carrion-Crows and Hoodies, cunning fellows that they are, just kept at a 

 respectful distance, and that was all. But we were not bent on such lowly 

 game; our quarry was of nobler stamp, and I scarcely heeded them at all. 

 I remember a Skylark trilled out its morning anthem ; and the shrill 

 screams of the Herring-Gulls and the Kittiwakes, and the harsh cry of the 

 Oystercatcher, were repeatedly heard. On the hillsides one could hear the 

 faint bleating of the lambs, whose enemies' castle we were about to storm. 

 We reached the cliffs at last ; a right glorious Eagles' home it was too. But 

 so soon as we got to the brink of that terrible cliff, a loud barking cry 

 rang shrilly out on the morning air, a yelping cry of defiance echoing 

 amongst the rocks ; and the Golden Eagle sailed proudly from his castle, 

 carried so stately forward by his magnificent stretch of wing. A right 

 royal bird he was ; and all thoughts of his evil deeds were for the time for- 

 gotten. It was the Eagle the king of the feathered race, the bird so 

 famous in all times ; and I was lost in admiration. As he sailed so grandly 

 on, his rich dark plumage came out in bold relief against the blue waters 

 far below, the morning sun causing his head and neck to shine like 

 burnished gold. I paused to admire this feathered robber, this proud and 

 unconquered bird of the mountains and the heaths. He speedily flew out 

 to sea, ascending the air as he went ; and when about three or four 

 hundred yards from the cliff, I had an opportunity of observing his easy 

 flight to perfection. Slowly sailing round in ever widening circles now 

 on motionless wing, now with rapid beats he surveyed our unwelcome 

 intrusion. Silent as death, now he swooped along, now elevating his long 

 wings, hovering like some huge Kestrel ; or, taking a long downward swoop, 

 he passed directly opposite the cliff, the white patches on his wings 

 coming out in strong contrast with his rich dark plumage. He did not 

 long remain in our company, but went far out to sea ; and I finally lost 

 sight of him as he doubled a point some half-mile away, leaving us to 

 storm his rocky citadel if we could or dared. As I said before, it was just 

 the place one could imagine a Golden Eagle's eyrie to be in the grandest 

 piece of cliff on the coast, and the best for a look-out too. The cliffs were 

 something terrible in their wild and rugged grandeur. They here rose fully 

 600 feet above the sea at least, partly in a sloping grassy cliff, broken here 

 and there by precipices, and partly in a beetling rock. Far down below, the 

 waters of the Minch dashed against its base, rolling through the caves with 

 a sound like thunder fitting artillery, I thought, for such a scene, a truly 

 regal salute indeed to the noble bird's abode. Far down on the sea 

 below, the ' Scoots ' and the Gulls, looking not much bigger than Sparrows, 

 were playing on the waves, or sitting on the rocks quiet and motionless. 

 The grassy parts of the cliffs were studded with the fairest primroses and 

 sea-pinks ; and in all the rock-crevices the delicate spleenwort fern grew in 

 lovely luxuriance. The nest of the Eagle was in a little grass-covered 



