XI 



MOST birds of prey have been brought very low in num- 

 bers in the British Isles. There has been a 



Eagles 



reaction in favour of eagles in late years, be- 

 cause of that nobility of mien and range of flight which, 

 from immemorial time, have marked them out as the 

 emblem of imperial power. In many of the Highland 

 deer forests they are now strictly preserved, and that, 

 strange to say, in the interest of sport, and in order to 

 keep down the grouse. Good deer ground is seldom 

 good grouse ground ; many an arduous stalk has been 

 marred by the flurried flight and alarm note of an old 

 grouse cock; so the fewer grouse there are in the 

 forest the better are the deerstalker's chances. 



But on a grouse moor proper the presence of a pair 

 of eagles is an expensive luxury, as was forcibly 

 brought to my notice one Sunday in March. It was a 

 fine, still morning; the brown hillsides of Strathullie 

 were still heavily banded and streaked with snowdrifts, 

 and the river ran full among the birch woods below. 

 The only bird life visible or audible was here and there 

 a grouse cock rising a few feet on the wing and descend- 

 ing into the heather with comfortable chortle ; for the 

 breath of spring was in the air, the bird's fancy lightly 



