246 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



carrion-crows, when breaking the shells of mussels. After 

 pouncing upon the deer calf, and finding the impossibility of 

 bearing it away to a distance, the eagle makes as short work 

 as possible by climbing to a great height in the air, when its 

 victim is dropped, and killed by a dash against the rocky 

 ground. Instantly descending, it feeds voraciously, and never 

 leaves off until either completely gorged or driven away. 

 Next day it is pretty certain, about the dawn, to return for 

 the remainder. 



I once witnessed a touching instance of the attachment of 

 an eagle to her young, which, like the child of some blood- 

 thirsty chief, alone had the power to touch the single chord 

 of tenderness and love in the heart of its cruel parent. I had 

 wounded her mortally as she flew from her eyrie, quite un- 

 conscious of her having hatched an eaglet. Next day she re- 

 turned to the foot of the rock, although not able to reach her 

 nest the feelings of a mother being stronger in her savage 

 breast than either the sense of present pain or the dread of 

 further danger. 



There is often only one egg in the nest, but when there are 

 two, one is frequently addled. It is a curious fact that, in 

 the year 1847, when there was a dreadful hurricane about 

 the end of April, no eggs were laid in either the sea or golden 

 eagles' eyries of the Black Mount forest. 



The enormous nests of the golden and sea eagles are pretty 

 much alike ; the outer rim being composed of thick boughs, 

 and the whole not unlike the shape of a large-sized round 

 table. The golden eagle always has its eyrie among rocks, 

 while the erne chooses an old tree for inland incubation. On 

 the bold rocky coast, where suitable trees are scarce, it follows 

 the example of the mountaineer, and generally builds in the 

 cliffs. 



The colour of the golden eagle differs very much ; some are 

 so dark as almost to justify the name of " the black eagle," 

 which they are often called in the Highlands ; in others the 



