DESTRUCTION FOR SAFETY OF MAN AND STOCK 127 



LESSER BEASTS OF PREY 



Lesser noxious animals, such as Martens, Polecats, Stoats 

 and Weasels have, like their greater brothers, suffered on 

 account of their habits, but as some have been killed rather 

 for their fur and because of their enmity to game, they will 

 be referred to in the sections which follow. 



BIRDS OF PREY 



In a land given over to the simple rule of agriculture, 

 birds of prey, of necessity, follow the same hard track of 

 slaughter and extermination trod by beasts of rapine. In the 

 old days Scotland was well plenished with birds of prey 

 that afforded sport for kings, and, because of their service 

 in the amusement of the court, were protected with all the 

 rigour of feudal law. " Of fowlis sic as leiffis of reif [live by 

 rapine]," wrote Boece in the sixteenth century, "ar sindry 

 kindis in Scotland, as ernis [eagles], falconis, goishalkis, 

 sparkalkis, marlyonis, and sik lik fowlis." But of these how- 

 few remain in anything like their former abundance, and how 

 many have altogether disappeared. A few examples will illus- 

 trate the progressive effect of man's deliberate destruction, 

 which on occasion was insisted upon by law (see p. 217). 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE 



Grateful as the presence of the most magnificent of our 

 native birds, the Golden Eagle {Aquila chrysaetus] (Fig. 31, 

 p. 129) may be to the lover of nature, it is little wonder 

 that farmers and crofters of former days waged incessant 

 war upon it. Old records contain many complaints of its 

 destructiveness. "The Eagles [of the islet of Lingay in 

 the Outer Hebrides]," wrote Martin in 1703, "are very 

 destructive to the Fawns and Lambs, especially the black 

 Eagle 1 which is of a lesser size than the other." 



The flight of the Eagle was strong and the countryside 

 over which its depredations extended was vast. This also 

 hastened its downfall. The natives of an island adjoining 

 Island Saint or Island-more (Ellan-Shiant or Ellan-Mhuir) 

 in the Outer Hebrides told Martin that the Eagles 



1 The universal name for the Golden Eagle in Gaelic-speaking districts 

 is lolar-d/ntb, the black eagle, or simply Ani-eun, the Bird. 



