206 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xxvi. 



the hiding-place, which gave me hardly room to stand, sit, or lie. 

 My position was not very comfortable, and the air was nipping 

 cold just before the break of day. It was still scarcely grey 

 dawn when a bird, with a slow, flapping flight, passed the open- 

 ing of my hut, and lighted out of sight, but near, for I heard 

 him strike the ground ; and my heart beat faster. What was 

 my disappointment when his low crowing croak announced the 

 raven ! and presently he came in sight, hopping and walking 

 suspiciously round the sheep ; till, supposing the coast clear, 

 and little wotting of the double-barrel, he hopped upon the car- 

 cass, and began with his square cut-and-thrust beak to dig at 

 the meat. Another raven soon joined him, and then two more ; 

 who, after a kind of parley, quite intelligible, though in an un- 

 known tongue, were admitted to their share of the banquet. I 

 was watching their voracious meal with some interest, when 

 suddenly they set up a croak of alarm, stopped feeding, and all 

 turned their knowing-looking eyes in one direction. At that 

 moment I heard a sharp scream, but very distant. The black 

 party heard it too ; and instantly darted off, alighting again at a 

 little distance. Next moment a rushing noise, and a large body 

 passed close to me ; and the monarch of the clouds lighted at 

 once on the sheep, with his broad breast not fifteen yards from 

 me. He quietly folded up his wings ; and, throwing back his 

 magnificent head, looked round at the ravens, as if wondering at 

 their impudence in approaching his breakfast- table. They kept 

 a respectful silence, and hopped a little farther off. The royal 

 bird then turned his head in my direction, attracted by the alte- 

 ration in the appearance of the ground which he had just no- 

 ticed in the dim morning light. His bright eye that instant 

 caught mine as it glanced along the barrel. He rose ; as he 

 did so I drew the trigger, and he fell quite dead half a dozen 

 yards from the sheep. I followed Malcolm's directions, who had 

 predicted that one eagle would be followed by a second, and re- 

 mained quiet, in hopes that his mate was not within hearing of 

 my shot. The morning was brightening, and I had not waited 

 many minutes when I saw the other eagle skimming low over 

 the brow of the hill towards me. She did not alight at once. 

 Her eye caught the change in the ground or the dead body of 

 her mate, and she wheeled up into the air. I thought her lost 



