THE SEA EAGLE. 23 



so soon as able to wing their way elsewhere. The inhabi- 

 tants of the island believe, that the pair of old birds which 

 frequent it, not only guard, and abstain from injuring their 

 fowl, but that they will not suffer other birds of prey to 

 molest them.* The people of Connemara generally, indeed, be- 

 lieve that the eagle never takes away any fowl from about the 

 houses in the vicinity of its nest. My informant has seen a sea 

 eagle lift a duck from near the door of a house, at a distance from 

 its eyrie, and bear it away, but being pursued by a number of 

 gray crows (Corvus comix), it dropped the prey, which was still 

 alive, though much torn by its talons. This species of crow, 

 which is abundant in the district, is said to be the " inveterate 

 enemy of the eagle," and to gather from all quarters to harass 

 and attack it, so soon as the royal bird comes in sight. The 

 writer has visited fourteen eagles' nests, and robbed several of the 

 eggs, which were never more than two in number. A few years 

 ago it was considered a dangerous undertaking to rob an eyrie, 

 and persons went armed with guns to protect the aggressor, but 

 my informant has never himself been assailed, nor known men to 

 be attacked t by the parent birds. They appear to breed for a 

 number of years in the same nest, renewing it every season. 

 One built in a yew tree, growing upon an island of the lake on 



* This idea may not 'be wholly imaginary. The party already mentioned as visiting 

 Horn Head, &c., in 1845, saw, at Dunfanaghy, a singularly docile pet bird of this 

 species, which had been taken as a nestling the year before in that vicinity. This 

 bird had its liberty in a yard within the village, where it generally remained, but 

 took occasional flights to the opposite side of the bay. It did not molest any of the 

 fowls kept in the same yard, but immediately attacked any strange fowls that 

 made their appearance. It may be added, that this eagle not only permitted, but 

 took pleasure in having its plumage smoothed down by the hand of its owner. 



t Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that, although under such circumstances, they seldom 

 attempt to molest their enemy, he was told of their having twice done so in 

 the island of Lewis (p. 227). The golden eagle, he observes, is bolder than the sea 

 eagle, and has been known to attack the robbers of its eyrie : two instances are 

 briefly given at p. 213. An article in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, 

 on Scrope's Days and Nights of Salmon-fishing, contains an excellent account of the 

 habits &c, of the golden eagle. The attack of one of these birds on a boy about 

 to rob an eyrie in Sutherlandshire is authentically given, ^and the adventurer named, 

 who went single-handed to the task. The eagle fixed one talon in his shoulder, and 

 the other in his cheek, but with the aid of his knife, he destroyed the bird, after a 

 very severe combat. In the Wild Sports of the West, p. 107, a graphic account 



