244 



ON EAGLES. 



FEW sportsmen who have been much in the wilds of Scotland 

 have not occasionally seen an eagle ; but except at the hatch- 

 ing 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 very difficult to scale. 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



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 an unprotected flock, and con- 

 tinue their depredations until scared away, their more usual 

 prey consists of hares, rabbits, 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 Glen Artney. The shepherds seldom 

 molested the old ones ; but by means of ladders, at consider- 

 able risk, took the young and sold them. One of these, 

 brought to Callander in 1838, when scarcely full-fledged, 

 would seize a live cat thrown to it for food, and bearing it 

 away with the greatest ease, tear it to pieces, the cat unable 

 to offer any resistance, and uttering the most horrid yells. 



I recollect, when a boy, an eyrie in Glen Luss, where a 



