Notices of Books. 9479 



hour, I tied myself to the thick rope, and proceeded, gun in hand, over 

 a ledge to an undercliff of from ten to twenty feet wide, along which 

 I walked some forty or fifty yards. I leaned over the edge, and saw 

 the sticks of the nest some little distance to my right. I got up, 

 shouted and made all the noise I could ; but no eagle came out, I saw 

 one soaring silently at a great height. I had been led to believe there 

 was only one bird belonging to the nest; so after all the noise I had 

 made, I took it for granted that this was the one. I shouted for the 

 little rope, and tied a stone and a piece of white paper to it for my 

 companion to signal when it was opposite the nest. However, I found 

 afterwards that he could not distinguish it. I could only just make 

 him out to be waving his cap, he was so far below. No sooner was 

 the stone over the edge of the rock than out dashed an eagle close to 

 me, within five yards, and with one cry of alarm flew away to the right, 

 down the valley. Evidently a mountain eagle, as the shepherds had 

 called it (it looked rather 'ringtailed') : 1 was not altogether sorry at 

 having laid aside my gun. 



"All was now finally planned. The men wisely thought it would 

 be better to have the stake driven, and everything done upon the ledge. 

 The shepherd, being an old man, did not dare come down. After a 

 little difficulty (for there was no depth of soil), we fixed the big stake 

 firmly above a very steep slope, some yards from the edge of the rock ; 

 then a stake for the little rope twenty yards to the left of us. Having 

 spliced the rope to the stake upon which 1 was to sit, and tied myself 

 in, explained all to the men, and agreed upon the signals, I proceeded 

 over the edge, which, to my horror, I found almost as sharp as a knife, 

 being a kind of mica-schist. I now felt how stupid I had been in for- 

 getting to bring the leathern tubes I had had made; for the sharp 

 edge, besides wearing the rope, caused great difficulty and friction in 

 hauling up. No sooner was I over the rock, with the little rope in my 

 right hand, than I saw the nest, with two eggs, beautiful, and very 

 different from each other, about five feet to my left as I faced the rock. 

 I could just reach the ledge with my fingers and unshod toes, and so, 

 having cried ' stop,' I hung with the rope bearing me backwards towards 

 the abyss, in a position both cramping from the muscular exertion 

 required and highly nervo-excitory from the feeling of danger or in- 

 security, unfounded though it might have been. On looking at the eggs 

 in the nest, I at once saw a hole in one, as if the old bird had dug her 

 claw into it in her hurry ; but on further examination I found it had a 

 young one in it just hatching, and giving vent to low cries, which 

 accounted for the high state of ' closkiug' in which I had found the 



