128 THE EAGLE. 



of heath, and upon the heath rushes again, upon 

 which lay one young one, and an addle egg, and by 

 them a lamb and a hare, and three heath-poults. 



But the most particular and curious account of 

 one of these Eagle nest-larders, is related by a gen- 

 tleman who was visiting at a friend's house in Scot- 

 land, near which he went to see a nest, which, for 

 several summers, two Eagles had occupied; it was 

 upon a rock, or a hill. There was a stone within a 

 few yards of it, about six feet long, and nearly as 

 broad, and upon this stone almost constantly, bnt 

 always when they had young, the gentleman and 

 his servants found a number of grouse, partridges, 

 hares, rabbits, ducks, snipes, ptarmigans, rats ? mice, 

 &c., and sometimes kids, fawns, and lambs. When 

 the young Eagles were able to hop the length of this 

 stone, to which there was a narrow road hanging 

 over a dreadful precipice, the Eagles, he learned, 

 often brought hares and rabbits alive, and placing 

 them before their young, taught them to kill and 

 tear them to pieces, as a cat brings live mice to her 

 kittens, and teaches them to kill them. Sometimes, it 

 seems, hares, rabbits, rats, &c., not being sufficiently 

 weakened by wounds, got oif from the young ones, 

 while they were amusing themselves with them; 

 and one day a rabbit escaped into a hole, where the 

 old Eagle could not find it. The parent bird, another 

 day, brought to her young ones the cub of a fox, 

 which, after it had fought well, and desperately bit- 

 ten the young ones, attempted to make its escape up 

 the hill, and would, in all probability, have accom- 

 plished it, had not the shepherd, who was watching 

 the motion of the Eagles, with a view to shoot them, 



