THE SOUND OF MULL. 475 



dead carcasses. The sea-eagle especially is often put to great 

 straits at that season, and will wander far to escape starvation. 

 I examined one shot by a farmer in March 1857 at Hamble- 

 dou, three miles below Henley-on-Thames. The bird, although 

 large, seemed to be in its second year, as the tail was mottled 

 brown. Most likely it was weak from hunger, for the farmer, 

 at first mistaking it for a boy ! walked leisurely to the root of 

 the tree, and knocked it down with small shot. From its 

 brown tail, the Sassenachs thought it a fine golden eagle. 



On the 15th of February 1857, two sea-eagles and their 

 young one of the year kept coursing round my shooting-quar- 

 ters in Mull for the greater part of the day. They chased 

 and dived after each other in high glee. It being Sunday, 

 they seemed aware of the day of safety, otherwise it is not 

 unlikely that one of the white tails might have been added 

 to our list of specimens for 1858. 



A couple of hen-harriers always hatch on one of my lower 

 moors, and both of them frequently give the stubble-fields a 

 range in autumn. Sparrow-hawks and kestrels are common 

 all over the island. One of the former had the coolness to 

 strike down a thrush before our door, and was itself struck 

 down by my son's gun, when carrying off the musical morceau. 

 The peregrine, though numerous among the wilds of Morven, 

 seldom crosses over to Mull. When swimming in the Sound 

 early one morning, I heard great commotion among the sea- 

 birds. No wonder, for there was the peregrine with one of 

 them in its talons, within a few yards of my head, which it 

 most likely mistook for a seal ! It flew with all speed to the 

 mainland, and had evidently made a raid on Mull, returning 

 home with the plunder like a true freebooter. A short time 

 after, a peregrine, probably the same, dashed at a sly old 

 mallard scared out of a ditch by my scringe-netters. With a 

 loud screech the mallard dropt like a stone among the fisher- 

 men, when the falcon, foiled in the stoop, sheered off across 

 the sea to Morven. The common buzzard I have sometimes 



