NOTICES OP NEW BOOKS. 159 



away to a range of hills above the spot where the encounter had taken place. 

 Making sure that the Eagle would return speedily, he killed the cat and 

 left it as a bait ; then, resetting his trap, he threw the rabbit which had beeu 

 his former bait on one side, and rapidly left the spot. Returning after a 

 few hours, quite confident of finding the Eagle in the trap, he was greatly 

 surprised to discover everything apparently untouched. It was only when 

 he had removed the cat, whose skin he required, aud looked out for the bait 

 previously used, that he noticed the rabbit had disappeared from where he 

 had fluug it in the morning, and was nowhere to be found. Had he only 

 thought for a moment, it ought to have beeu clear to him that the Eagle 

 would never have attempted to interfere with the cat (a true Wild Cat is far 

 too rough a customer to be tackled with impunity), aud the hungry bird was 

 simply endeavouring to reach the rabbit ; even this proceeding the cat most 

 forcibly resisted, and it was not till he returned and found everything quiet 

 that he managed to search out the prey he was originally in quest of and 

 then make off." 



With regard to the nesting-haunts of this species, Mr. Booth 

 says : — 



" The situations chosen by the Golden Eagle for breeding purposes vary 

 considerably. I have never seen their nests so open and exposed to the 

 storm and wind as those of the Sea Eagle ; they appear, in most instances, 

 to seek a more sheltered and hidden position. At times the eyrie may be in 

 the face of a precipitous range of rocks, utterly inaccessible, except to those 

 well acquainted with the use of ropes ; but more frequently it requires but 

 little skill to scramble within a few feet of the spot, and, with the assistance 

 of a single line from above, to reach the nest itself. Numbers of ledges 

 showing more or less of the old and weather-beaten nests have been pointed 

 out to me, where, without the slightest help, a very moderate climber might 

 easily make his way to the spot. These localities, with the exception of 

 those in the strictly preserved deer-forests, are now nearly all deserted. I 

 have, however, during the last few years, frequently heard of Eagles taking 

 up their quarters and nesting in districts where their presence formerly, 

 except during an occasional flying visit, was entirely unknown. 



" The most curious and striking uest of this species that 1 ever came 

 across was placed just above a sloping bank that was a perfect bed of 

 primrose-roots. A stunted holly-bush formed a background, and broke the 

 dull appearance of the dark and sombre slab of rock that rose straight from 

 the back of the ledge. The primroses were a mass of bloom, but the holly 

 looked as dried and uncomfortable as if it were struggling for existence iii 

 the smoky atmosphere of some London garden. 



" It is seldom, I believe, that the nests are now to be found on trees. 

 The old and decaying remnants of the deserted structures may still be 



