286 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Scotland, and in the Hebrides ; but as it is a bird which creates a good deal of havoc among lambs 

 at certain periods of the year, the war of extermination which has been waged against it has now 

 contributed considerably to the increasing rarity of the species on these coasts. The breeding of this 

 Sea Eagle has been well described by Mr. Woolley.* He says: "On the coasts, the Sea Eagle 

 chooses a roomy and generally sheltered ledge of rock. The egg which Mr. Hewitson figures (Eggs, Br. B., 

 ed. 3, pi. iv., fig. 2) is one of two which I took on the 23rd April, 1849, on one of the most northern 

 points of our island. The nest was very slightly made of a little grass and fresh heather loosely put 

 together, without any sticks; but two or three 'kek' stalks were strewn about outside. There was a 

 good thickness of guano-like soil upon the rock, which made much nest unnecessary. Two or three 

 Guillemot's beaks, the only unmanageable part of that bird, were not far off. The eggs were laid two 

 clays before when I went to reconnoitre ; and I never shall forget the forbearance which a friend 

 who was with me showed, at my request, as he lay, gun in hand, with the hen Eagle in full view upon 

 her nest not forty yards below him. Her head was towards the cliff, and concealed from our sight ; 

 whilst her broad back and white tail, as she stood bending over her nest on the grassy ledge, with the 

 beautiful sandstone rock and sea beyond, completed a picture rarely to be forgotten. But our ears, 

 and the air we breathe, give a finish to Nature's pictures which no art can imitate ; and here were the 

 effects of the sea, and the heather, and the rocks, the fresh warmth of the northern sun, and the 

 excitement of exercise, while the musical yelping of the male Eagle came from some stand out of 

 sight. Add to all this the innate feeling of delight connected with the pursuit of wild animals, which 

 no philosopher has yet been able to explain further than as a special gift of our Great Maker, and then 

 say whether it is not almost blasphemy to call such a scene a ' picture ! ' Upon this occasion, I made 

 some remark to my friend, when the hen Eagle showed her clear eye and big, yellow beak, her head 

 full of the expression of wild nature and freedom. She gave us a steady glance, then sprang from the 

 rock, and with 'slow winnowing wing' the flight-feathers turning upwards at every stroke was 

 soon out at sea. Joined by her mate, she began to sail with him in circles farther and farther away, 

 till quite out of sight, yelping as long as we could hear them, Gulls mobbing them all the time. 

 To enjoy the beauties of a wild coast to perfection, let me recommend any man to seat himself in 

 an Eagle's nest. The year before this I took the young ones out of the same eyry late in July. 

 It was my first attempt at an Eagle's stronghold, and I shall never forget the interest of the whole 

 affair; a thunderstorm coming on just before, making it necessary to cut drains in the peat with 

 our knives, to divert the torrents of water ; our councils about the best mode of attaching the ropes ; 

 the impertinence of a young lad who, stationed to watch for my signals, was rendered quite useless by 

 his keen sense of the ridiculous on seeing me, in my inexperience, twisting round and round at the end 

 of the rope ; the extraordinary grandeur everything assumed, from the nest itself ; the luxurious feeling 

 of exultation ; the interest of every plant about it I know them all now ; the heaps of young Herring- 

 Guns' remains, and the large fish-bone ; but, above all, the Eaglets fully able to fly, and yet crouching 

 side by side, with their necks stretched out and chins on the gi*ound, like young Fawns, their frightened 

 eyes showing that they had no intention of showing fight. 



" Very gently, as a man ' tickles ' trout, I passed my hand under them, and tied their legs 

 together, and then tried to confine their wings. They actually allowed me to fasten a handkerchief 

 round them, which, however, was soon shaken off when they began to be pulled up. When the men 

 had raised me, the string attached to my waist lifted one Eaglet, and presently the second came to the 

 length of his tether. Great was the flapping of wings, and clutching at rocks and grass. I had many 

 fears that the string or the birds' legs must give way ; but, after much hard pulling, I got them safely 

 to the top, and they are now (1853) alive at Matlock amongst rocks, where I hope they may breed ; 

 but, though five years old this season, they have not yet quite completed the adult plumage. Their 

 dutiful parents never came near them in their difficulties ; but I am happy to say that in 1850 (the 

 year after I took their eggs), they carried off their young, through the interest I was able to exert in 

 their favour. They had shifted their position; and they changed again in 1851 to a rock with an 

 aspect quite different, and more than a mile away. In 1847, to please the shepherds, the young were 

 shot in the nest, which was built in the spot where I visited it the two following years. There was 

 no sea-weed about this nest either time that I saw it ; but a friend wi-ites me word, that two which 



* "Ootheca Woolleyana," p, 47. 



