ON EAGLES. 269 



greatest ease, tear it to pieces, the cat unable to offer any 

 resistance, and uttering the most horrid yells. From the 

 havoc they made among the game, especially when they 

 had young, the keepers in the neighbourhood have been 

 very diligent of late years in searching out the eyries, and 

 trapping the old birds ; so that now, in this part of Perth- 

 shire, there is not one for three nests that there were 

 formerly. 



I recollect, some time ago, an eyrie in Glen-Luss, where 

 a pair hatched yearly ; but since the female was shot, no 

 others have frequented the place. The shooting of this 

 eagle was a service of great danger, and the man who 

 undertook it a most hardy and determined fellow. The cliff 

 was nearly perpendicular, and the only way of access was 

 over the top, where a single false step would have sent 

 him headlong into the gulf below. After creeping down a 

 considerable way, he saw the eagle sitting on her eggs, a 

 long shot off; but his gun was loaded with swanshot, so, 

 taking a deliberate aim, he fired ; she gave one shrill 

 scream, extended her wings, and died on her nest. His 

 greatest difficulty now was, how to avail himself of his 

 success. He was not, however, the man to be balked ; so, 

 at the most imminent risk, he managed to get to the eyrie, 

 tumbled the eagle over the cliff, and pocketed the two 

 eggs. They were set under a hen, but did not hatch. 

 I afterwards broke one of the shells, and was quite 

 astonished at its thickness. 



A fair shot may sometimes be got at the male when 

 there are young ones in the nest, as he will often stoop 



