334 THE GOLDEN EAGLE 



baby Eaglet, found there four grouse, part of a hare, 

 and a monk stoat ! the latter, as the gamekeeper said, 

 being an unheard of thing. Sometimes an enraged 

 Hoodie Crow has been seen in full chase of a Golden 

 Eagle which had been too near the nest and young of 

 the former. 



Mr. Seton Gordon says that when this Eagle is 

 pursued by a small bird, the Mistle Thrush for instance, 

 it never turns on its pursuer, although it could kill it 

 with the greatest ease ; but as he adds " in nature it seems 

 to be the invariable rule that the pursued flies from the 

 pursuer no matter what the relative sizes may be." 



The Golden Eagle is now slightly on the increase in 

 Scotland. It is a most interesting bird, the type of 

 nobility and of valour. The naturalist with whom I 

 collaborated over the signature, "A Son of the Marshes," 

 has told of two live Golden Eagles which were chained 

 to stands just inside the courtyard of the old coaching 

 inn at Sittingbourne, in Kent, when he was a boy, 

 objects of wondering delight to himself and of much 

 daily curiosity to the passengers on the coaches. They 

 snatched up more than one cat that came too close to 

 their stands after the meat that was given to them. 



Many poets have sung of the Golden Eagle : 



" On sounding pinion borne, he soars, and shrouds, 

 His proud aspiring head among the clouds." 



" Soaring 



With upward pinions through the flood of day, 

 And, giving full bosom to the blaze, gain on the sun." 



' Trying his young against its rays, 

 To prove if they're of generous breed, 



or base.' 



