i'30 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



WHITE-TAILED OR SKA EAGLE 



A harder fate has fallen upon the Sea Eagle or Erne 

 (Haliaetus albuilla) (Fig. 32, p. 131). Greater than its 

 "Golden" cousin, it is no less destructive. Of the Outer 

 Hebrides, Martin said in 1703 "There are Eagles here 

 [Harris] of two sorts, the one is of a large size and gray 

 colour, and these are very destructive to the Fawns, Sheep 

 and Lambs." Of Shetland he wrote: 



There are likewise many Eagles in and about these Isles which are 

 very destructive to the Sheep and Lambs.... The Isles of Zetland produce 

 many sheep, which have two or three lambs at a time ; they would be much 

 more numerous, did not the Eagles destroy them. 



And Brand writing of Shetland about the same time (1701) 

 records that 



There are also many Eagles, which do great prejudice and hurt to the 

 Countrey ; for the Lambs they will lift up in their Claws, and take whole 

 to their nests, and falling down upon the Sheep, they fix one foot on the 

 ground and the other on the sheep's back, which they having so apprehended, 

 they do pick out their eyes, and then use the Carcases as they please. 



Few of the sufferers were content to save their flocks by 

 the simple charm used by the islanders, who, says Brand, 



when they see the Eagle catching or fleeing away with their prey, use a 

 Charm, by taking a string, whereon they cast some knots, and repeat a 

 form of words, which being done, the Eagle lets her prey fall, tho at a great 

 distance from the Charmer, an instance of which I had from a Minister 

 who told me, that about a month before we came to Zetland, there was an 

 Eagle that flew up with a Cock at Scallmuay, which one of these Charmers 

 seeing, presently took a string (his garter as was supposed), and casting 

 some knots thereupon with the using the ordinary words, the Eagle did let 

 the Cock fall into the sea, which was recovered by a boat that went out for 

 that end. 



So troublesome was this frequenter of the sea-cliffs that 

 rom very early times a price rested upon its head in 

 Orkney, witness an act passed at Kirkwall in 1626: 



Anent Slaying of the Earn It is statute and ordained... that whatever 

 persone shall slay the earn or eagle 1 shall have of the Baillie of the parochine 

 where it shall happen him to slay the aigle 8^. from every reik [inhabited 

 house] within the parochine, except from cottars that have no sheep, and 

 20 shill. from ilk persone for ilk earn's nest it shall happen them to herrie ; 

 and they shall present them to the Baillie, and the Baillie shall be holden 

 to present the head of the said earn at ilk Head Court. 



1 The words may include both the White-tailed and Golden Eagle. 



