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CHAPTER VIII. 



SOME OF THE FALCONID^ 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 

 (Aquila chrysdetus.) 



Ix Scotland the living prey of the Golden Eagle, called 

 there the Black Eagle, consists largely of mountain 

 hares, but it takes lambs, grouse and other birds, some- 

 times even fawns and the young of the red-deer. In 

 Hungary he sweeps down towards autumn from the 

 higher regions to the vast plains, where he works havoc 

 among the smaller wild animals, especially the hares. 

 Only when driven by extreme hunger will he feed on 

 carrion. On sunny days he soars circling above, with 

 shrill squeal, until quite lost to sight, looking as it were 

 into the very face of the sun. 



The breeding places of the Eagle are confined in Great 

 Britain to the Highlands of Scotland and the islands of 

 the Western side, and they are now protected by the 

 owners of deer forests from the grouse preservers and 

 sheep farmers who greatly thinned their numbers in 

 former years. In Ireland very few pairs now remain; 

 they were nearly all destroyed there by poison. They 

 rarely visit England. So far from attacking any one 

 who visits the eyrie or tries to take an egg or young, 

 those who know them best say that they can be photo- 

 graphed without the least difficulty, in fact the old birds 

 will soar high above, seemingly ignoring the presence 

 of the intruders. A visitor to one eyrie, in which was a 



