THE NODDY. 403 



sometimes the parent birds are obliged to hunt daily. Young 

 eagles are voracious beings, and if there be no sheep flocks 

 within reach, the task of supplying them with food is a very 

 heavy one, especially when they have nearly attained maturity. 

 In feeding its young for the first few weeks of their hfe, the 

 eagle tears the prey into little pieces, and impartially distributes 

 the bleeding moisels to the gaping and screaming offspring. 

 Afterwards, however, when the young eagles have gained 

 strength of beak, the prey is merely dropped near them, and 

 they tear it to pieces for themselves. 



Generally the nest of the Eagle is placed in some inaccessible 

 spot, and the bird seems never to be so pleased as when it can 

 find a rocky ledge situated about half-way down a precipice, 

 and sheltered from above by a large projecting piece of rock. 

 This projection answers two purposes. It prevents the nest 

 from being seen from above, and also guards it from being 

 harried by persons let down by ropes. To take an Eagle's-nest 

 is always a task of extreme difficulty, and one which tries to 

 the utmost the nerves and endurance of the climber. It also 

 makes considerable demands on his courage, for if the parent 

 birds should discover the intruder, they are sure to attack him, 

 and may very probably dash him to the ground. 



Should the bold cragsman succeed in reaching the nest, he 

 does not find it a very pleasant locality. The nostrils of the 

 Eagle are very useful for the purpose of respiration, but the 

 bird has apparently little or no olfactory sensibilities. The 

 stench that arises from an inhabited Eagle's-nest is quite beyond 

 the power of description, for the young Eagles themselves are 

 not the sweetest beings in the world, and their evil odour is 

 supplemented by that which arises from the refuse food that is 

 suffered to putrefy in the very nest. 



There are very many sea-birds which hatch their young on 

 the shelves of precipitous rocks, and of them I have chosen for 

 an example the bird which is called the Noddy {Atious stolidus). 

 It is a species of Tern, and has long been celebrated among 



o Da 



