THE eagle's cliff. 1 27 



To black fowls, eagles appear particularly attached ; 

 and the villagers avoid, as much as possible, rearing 

 birds of that colour. 



A few days before our arrival, one of the coast-guards, 

 alarmed by the cries of a boy, rushed from the watch- 

 house ; the eagle had taken up a black hen, and as he 

 passed within a few yards, the man flung his cap at him. 

 The eagle dropped the bird ; it was quite dead, however, 

 the talons having shattered the back-bone. The 

 villagers say (with what truth I know not) that turkeys 

 are never taken. 



That the eagle is extremely destructive to fish, and par- 

 ticularly so to salmon, many circumstances would prove. 

 They are constantly discovered watching the fords, 

 in the spawning season, and are seen to seize and carry 

 off the fish One curious anecdote I heard from my 

 friend the priest. Some years since, a herdsman, on 

 a very sultry day in July, while looking for a missing 

 sheep, observed an eagle posted on a bank that overhung 

 a pool. Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, 

 and a violent struggle ensued. When the herd reached 

 the spot, he found the eagle pulled under water by the 

 strength of the fish, and the calmness of the day joined 

 to drenched plumage, rendered him unable to extricate 

 himself. With a stone, the peasant broke the eagle's 

 pinion, and actually secured the spoiler and his victim, 

 for he found the salmon dying in his grasp. 



When shooting on Lord Sligo's mountains, near the 

 Killeries, I heard many particulars of the eagle's habits 

 and history, from a grey-haired peasant, who had passed a 

 long life in these wilds. The scarcity of hares, which here 

 were once abundant, he attributed to the rapacity of 

 those birds ; and he affirmed that, when in pursuit of 



