The Zoologist — March, 1807. 611 



enable us to get past a projecting crag, below which (correctly as 

 events proved) Jem declared the nest was. He promised to bring us 

 the eggs next morning, " before we had our eyes open," as he 

 intended to try it with a longer rope of his own, and with this we were 

 compelled to rest contented for the present. Whilst climbing the cliff 

 Jem said he had found a "jackdaw's" nest, and putting his arm into 

 a crevice handed me a young chough, only some three or four days 

 hatched, and which we put back as it was of no use. The chough is. 

 tolerably plentiful along the cliffs; the natives call it the "jackdaw," 

 and the true jackdaw (C. monedula), also common, they call the 

 " gray daw," much preferring the latter as a pet. I begged them to 

 wage war against the grey-pated fellows, who would otherwise in time 

 drive away the " red-legs," as they have already done at Beachy Head ; 

 but I am sorry to say my hearers by no means sympathized with my 

 dread of such a contingency: the chough would not talk or whistle as 

 the gray-pate would, and in fact he was altogether a " duffer." 



Proceeding along the cliffs to the Head, our guides pointed out the 

 spot where the sea eagle had last built. The nest, remains of which 

 were still visible, was situated on a ledge, about thirty feet from the 

 summit of a stupendous cliff, but completely looked into from the 

 point on which we were standing, though a chasm many hundred feet 

 in depth, but not more than thirty yards wide, separated us from it. 

 A more foolish place it would be difficult to conceive, for the nest 

 could easily be reached by a rope from above, and I am not sure that 

 a very daring cragsman could not have crept along a lower ledge, 

 holding on to the upper one, until he got to the nest, though of course 

 a single slip would have been certain death. I was not surprised to 

 hear that the birds had been robbed year after year, until they finally 

 left the place : one or other of the old birds had often been shot, but 

 the surviver always managed to find a fresh mate, until at last the 

 persecution got too hot. The men told me that there used to be a sea 

 eagle's eyrie in Tory Island, but that they had not seen the " Tory 

 eagle," as they called him, all that spring, so they supposed he must 

 have been destroyed. I may here remark, that from what I now and 

 on subsequent occasions learned, I imagine the sea eagle to be rarer 

 in the North of Ireland than the golden eagle. The vulturine 

 propensities of the former cause him to fall an easy prey to the 

 temptation offered by the strychnined carcase of a sheep placed for 

 hooded crows, foxes and other " vermin ;" he also gorges himself with 

 food, and is thus more easily approached than his nobler congener ; 



