9480 Notices of Books. 



mother. I reached the eggs, and put them in the box with tow, which 

 I had lashed under my right arm, and T put some of the lining of the 

 nest in my pocket. It was very large, something like a rook's, highly 

 magnified, and lined with a kind of Luznla, much of it quite green, 

 and apparently recently placed around : the middle was dried up.* 

 About six feet to my left, and with the embankment of sticks con- 

 tinued to it, was another platform with fresh stuff on it — perhaps a 

 nest of last year or a roosting-place for the other bird. Ten or twelve 

 yards to the right, and not exactly on the same ledge, was another old 

 nest. A few white feathers (ptarmigans') and white fur (mountain 

 hares') were all the remnants of prey tliat I saw. I was able to com- 

 municate with the men by shouting, as I was not more than six feet 

 from the top of the rock, and one of them had descended to the edge. It 

 was fortunate ; for had there been wind, as in the morning, I could not 

 have been heard ; nor, as it was, could I have been heard further down. 

 The little-rope signals had entirely failed. The eggs having been 

 carefully tied up, I shouted to ascend. The first pull, they told me, 

 was very hard; but 1 assisted them by climbing myself, and in half a 

 minute 1 was high and dry, and we shook hands all round : we had 

 finished our wee drop of whiskey before. During this time the oagle 

 did not appear, though it had again come within tyvo or three hundred 

 yards before I went down, but without screaming. All agreed that no 

 man had ever been there before. My companion and the boy, tired 

 and cold, reached the top of the cliff just in time to congratulate us on 

 our success. In going home I put the eggs alternately in my breeches 

 pocket to keep them warm, for I was anxious to save the life of the 

 young. In tlie evening I liberated the hatching one by an oval 

 opening, and the egg is as good as ever. This is the one with the 

 fewest marks upon it ; and it must have been laid and sat upon several 

 days before the other; for when I opened that in the same manner, 

 part of the yelk was not yet absorbed. I put the young bird from the 

 first egg before the fire ; its down soon dried, and it became like a 

 powder-puff; I kept it as warm as possible, but it died in two days : 

 perhaps I tried to feed it too soon ; or it might have been neglected 

 while I was out. The other one I put in spirits. The down on the 

 legs, as far as the division of the toes, proved them to be golden eagles. 

 The eyes were not open. The 'diamond' on the beak, as in other 



* The Luzub, which I believe to be L. sylvatica, grows plentifully on the damp 

 mountain sides and ledges of rocks. The eagles pluck and use the whole plant, which 

 is something like the top of a pine apple; and when dry the leaves remind one of 

 Bussian matting; but they are i]ot long, as in specimens gathered in woods. 



