BIRDS. 1 49 



eagles once bred there, but could get no dates given him. They 

 were probably destroyed on account of the havoc they made 

 amongst the native sheep, which were of a very small breed, and 

 therefore easily carried away. The Erne still visits the island, 

 though rarely, and General Burroughs has an immature one 

 stuffed in Trumbland House. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle writes us : " There has only been 

 occasionally a nest for the last twenty-five years. I remember 

 when there used to be seven or eight breeding-places (referring 

 to Hoy). My father and grandfather used to keep a pair tame. 

 I believe they have really been exterminated by people offering 

 rewards for. the eggs, since I never knew of any one shooting or 

 trapping an eagle in Orkney, within my memory" (Dec. 1887). 



In a pencil note by the late Mr. Heddle in a copy of Baikie 

 and Heddle's book, he says : " My care does not save them ; 

 only one pair built in 1862. J. G. H." 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue, in or about 1874, had pointed out to 

 him the place where a pair of these birds had bred the previous 

 year, between Hoy Head and the "Old Man;" he was also 

 informed, though perhaps not on very trustworthy authority, 

 that a pair of Eagles (most probably White-tailed) were shot off 

 the nest, in Hoy, in the spring of 1869. 



Mr. J. Barnett has a note of one shot on the island of. Viera, 

 a day or two before Christmas, 1882, apparently a young bird. 



Mr. Ranken informs us that a pair of Eagles frequented the 

 Red Head of Eday, a former breeding site, in the winter and 

 spring 1887, and that they were most likely of this species, 

 from the description given of them. Mr. Ranken paid a visit 

 to the island in the hopes of seeing them not shooting them 

 but was unfortunately disappointed, the birds having left the 

 locality. 



Mr. Watt of Skaill has noticed Eagles there nearly every 

 year from 1875 to 1882, and he one year saw a pair circling 

 over the hill of Kurfield, in the months of June and July. 



The following notes we had from Mr. Moodie-Heddle himself 

 during our visit to him in 1888 : 



White-tailed Eagles were very common in Hoy, there being 

 at one time ten or twelve pairs in the sea-cliffs. He thinks 



