ii6 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



of two eggs, and doubtless even higher prices have been obtained. Golden Eagles 

 return year after year to the same eyrie; incubation lasts about 21 days; the 

 nestlings are at iirst covered with white down. When they are able to leave the 

 nest the old Eagles teach them to kill their own prey " by dashing among a 

 cove}' of Ptarmigan poults, which gives the awkward young Eagles a good oppor- 

 tunit}' of catching one when separated from the old birds." On the Continent 

 the nest of the Golden Eagle is often placed in a tree. 



An Eagle in captivity, too often dirty, and with bedraggled and broken 

 feathers, is a forlorn sight, and an object for the deepest commiseration of any 

 lover of birds. A pair, taken from a nest in Scotland in 1877, throve remarkably 

 well in Lord Lilford's aviaries where, from the care bestowed upon them, they 

 were always in health and in perfect plumage ; the hen bird began to lay in 1888 

 an annual Qgg, generally devouring it as soon as it was laid ; one, however, that 

 was rescued from her, and is now in the writer's cabinet, is a very well marked 

 egg considering it was produced in captivity. The eggs are subovate, and measure 

 from 3' 23 to 2*72 inches, by from 2*55 to 2" 11 inches. 



The Golden Eagle preys chiefly upon mountain hares, rabbits, young lambs, 

 calves of red deer, occasionally upon carrion ; more rarel}' upon birds, though it 

 sometimes pounces upon a Ptarmigan or Grouse, and will hover over and try to 

 seize wild ducks. 



" On a bright hot day, without much wind. Eagles are fond of soaring round 

 and round at a great height above the top of a mountain, * * * in this manner 

 they can fly for some time without any perceptible motion of the wings, though 

 the tail is often turned from side to side to guide the flight. The points of the 

 primary quills are always rather turned up and separated, as is shewn in one of 

 Landseer's beautiful pictures, in which an Eagle is flying across a loch to a dead 

 stag which has already been discovered by a fox." (R. Gray — Birds of the West 

 of Scotland). These soaring flights are considered to be more for the purpose of 

 exercise than for a search for prey. 



According to Dresser the range of the Golden Eagle embraces almost the 

 whole of the Palsarctic Region, for it occurs from Northern Scandinavia down to 

 North Africa, and from Spain right across Europe into Dauria, in Eastern Asia, 

 ranging south to the Himalayas. It also extends from the Arctic dowm to the 

 temperate districts' of North America, 



In form the Golden Eagle is massive and powerful ; the head is round and 

 flattened on the top ; there is a superciliary ridge above the eyes ; the bill is 

 shorter than the head, very deep, and compressed towards the end. The neck is 

 of moderate length ; broad shoulders ; legs rather long and very muscular ; tarsi 



