ON EAGLES 



FEW sportsmen, who have been much in the wilds of 

 Scotland, have not occasionally seen an eagle ; but, 

 except at the hatching season, it is extremely difficult 

 to get a shot at one. Even then it is no easy task, for 

 the nest is often in the face of some precipice which few 

 dare to scale. 



The golden-eagle is not nearly so great a foe to the 

 farmer as to the sportsman ; for although a pair, having 

 young ones, will occasionally pounce upon very young and 

 unprotected lambs, and continue their depredations until 

 scared away, their more usual prey consists of hares, black- 

 game, and grouse a fact sufficiently proved by the feathers 

 and bones found in their eyries. A pair used to build every 

 year in Balquhidder, another in Glen Ogle, and a third in 

 Glenartney. The shepherds seldom molested the old ones; 

 but by means of ladders, at considerable risk, took the 

 young and sold them. One of these brought to Callander, 

 not long ago, when scarcely full-fledged, would seize a live 

 cat thrown to it for food, and, bearing it away with the 



