The White-Tailed Eagle. "9 



Rabbit wai'rens, estuaries, the lakes in parks, and decoys, are the places most 

 visited by the young birds on their migrations. In Ireland, where the White- 

 tailed Eagle was once numerous, but few now survive, poison placed in carrion 

 having accounted for most of them. Robert Gi-ay considered the Isle of Skye the 

 head quarters of the White-tailed Eagle in Scotland, and there was a time when 

 every bold headland maintained its pair ; but even there a remorseless war has 

 been waged against them ; fifty-seven shot on one estate, fifty-two on another, so runs 

 the tale of blood, the nests, too, were destroyed by burning peats being let down 

 into them by ropes! Harvie Brown writes: "There is no doubt about the marked 

 decrease in the number of inhabited eyries of the White-tailed Eagle during the 

 past fifteen years." * It is onl}^ on the inaccessible cliffs of some of the remotest 

 and smallest islands, like those of the Shiant group in the Outer Hebrides, that 

 they have any chance of existence. " Long may they continue in their inaccessible 

 retreat; and may the broken, overhanging basalt columns, which project far beyond 

 the giant ribs of similar structure down below, resist the tear and wear of time, 

 and prove a sheltering roof to them ! " 



According to Saunders the White-tailed Eagle is found in Europe in the 

 valley of the Danube and in Turkey ; in Scandinavia, Denmark, Northern Germany 

 and Russia ; while on migration it visits the rest of Europe, the Canaries, and 

 Northern Africa. It is also found in Asia as far as China, and in Greenland. 



The nest, which resembles that of the Golden Eagle, and is also lined with 

 Luzula, is usually placed upon a cliff above the sea ; sometimes upon a crag in- 

 land ; frequently on a tree or bush on an island in a loch ; sometimes on the 

 ground. In Egypt the nest has been found in the reeds of Lake IMenzaleh, 

 resembling a gigantic nest of the Marsh-Harrier. The eggs, two in number, are 

 laid in April ; the}^ are dull white, and measure about 2 '85 inches, b}' 2'2 inches. 



This Eagle will live to a great age in captivity, but rarel}- becomes tame. 

 However, the writer was once acquainted with a female that had attained a great 

 state of docility, and took delight in having charge of a brood of chickens, turn 

 about with a tame Kite. Both birds were the propert}^ of the Hon. T. Powys, 

 (afterwards well-known as Lord Lilford, the distinguished Ornithologist) and were 

 in charge of Osman, the Oxford bird-stuffer, in whose 3'ard, in his undergraduate 

 days, the writer often saw them, finding the Eagle with two or three chickens on 

 her back, while she was engaged in breaking up food for others running about 

 at her feet. 



An adult White-tailed Eagle was shot a few j^ears since near Bridg^vater, and 

 purchased at a high price b}' an American gentleman then living in Taunton : he 



* Fauna of the Outer Hebrides — published iSSS. 



