WHITE TAILED EAGLE. 17 



traveller who heard the lamentations of the mother, four men 

 went presently thither in a boat, and, knowing the eagle's nest, 

 found the child without any prejudice done to it." This of course 

 is an " old narration," but it has the advantage of as much truth 

 on its side as any similar stories that have since appeared. 



Although, as we have seen, eagles were abundant in Orkney and 

 Shetland even so late as 1812, it is now certain that they are all 

 but exterminated. Writing from Stromness, Mr J. H. Dunn, to 

 whom I am indebted for many interesting notices, informs me 

 that no Golden Eagles have bred in Hoy for a number of years, 

 and that the only recent specimen procured there was one shot in 

 1857, and supposed at the time to be one of the only pair that 

 had many years previously bred near R-adwick, on the west side 

 of Hoy. " Only one pair of Sea Eagles," continues Mr Dunn, 

 " have nested in Hoy for several years back; they are supposed to 

 be very old birds and unproductive. In 1865 their nest was got 

 at, but was found to be empty, and in the year following their nest 

 in another part of the cliffs was also reached, but found to contain 

 one egg, and that an addled one." 



Very great differences in size are observable in this species 

 some specimens measuring only six feet from tip to tip of the 

 wings, while others are at least one half more. The average stretch 

 of wing may be stated at seven feet and a-half a measurement 

 which I find to be at all events the average of upwards of thirty 

 specimens which I have of late years examined. The finest British 

 example of the Sea Eagle I have ever seen is one in the collection 

 of Sir James Matheson, Bart., of Stornoway Castle. This magni- 

 ficent bird, which was killed in the island of Lewis, is distinguished 

 for its great size and lightness of colour, being of a yellowish grey 

 all over. Compared with three or four other Sea Eagles in the 

 same collection, its size, indeed, appears quite extraordinary, and 

 had the specimen been darker in colour it might have readily been 

 mistaken for the Northern Sea Eagle (Haliaetus pelagicus of Pallas) 

 figured in Cassin's " Birds of California and Texas," or some other 

 eagle of mysterious size, several of which are alluded to by that 

 author in his account of the species. Mr Cassin speaks of a " grey 

 eagle of enormous dimensions," which is mentioned by the late 

 Prince Maximilian of Wied in his " Travels in the Interior of 

 North America," and also refers to another almost entirely white, 

 represented by Du Pratz " as inhabiting Louisiana." This Heb- 



B 



