NOTES AND QUERIES. 347 



reaching the top of the cHffs, my guide, seeing his comrades going 

 out mackerel-fishing, left me and joined them, but first giving me 

 some very vague directions as to the position of Spinks. However, 

 I walked on for an hour, seeing no sign of Eagles, when I thought of 

 returning, as it was getting late, and I had before me a drive of 

 fifteen miles to my lodgings in Belderig. I had not walked more 

 than a couple of hundred yards on my return when I heard the angry 

 cries of a Peregrine, and, the sound coming nearer, I looked round 

 over the great bog, and then perceived the cause of the Peregrine's 

 anger — a splendid Eagle, slowly flying in from the bog, with the 

 angry Peregrine close after him in full cry ; the Eagle, taking no 

 notice, kept straight on, passing right over me within easy gunshot, 

 and carrying a large hare dangling from his talons, held by the head 

 and forequarters. He passed slowly on, disappearing over the cliffs 

 to where it was evident the nest and young were situated. As I had 

 no idea as to the exact position of the nest, I continued on my 

 return, not reaching Belderig until after nine o'clock, very tired, but 

 highly pleased at the very unusual sight, to me, of an Eagle carrying 

 a hare to its young. 



The following year I again visited the cliffs with a young friend, 

 but, although we saw no sign of Eagles, were told they were about 

 the cliffs as usual, but could get no account of a nest to be seen. Two 

 years after I again went to the cliffs, and heard the same story, but 

 no one had seen a nest. After that I did not visit North Mayo until 

 May, 1898, when, in company of my old friend, Mr. E. J. Ussher, of 

 Cappagh House, Co. Waterford, and my old and lamented friend, the 

 late Howard Saunders, of London, we heard from the men that 

 Eagles were about the cliffs that season, but no one saw a nest. 

 However, as we walked along the cliffs, we had evidence of the truth 

 of their statement, for when passing Spinks we picked up an Eagle's 

 feather, and the clean-picked skeleton of a hare that must have been 

 killed within a week or two at farthest. This was the last authentic 

 evidence I have had of the Eagles in their old haunts ; any stories 

 since then of Eagles living about the cliffs are unreliable, as I found 

 out when visiting that coast along with my friend, E. M. Barrington, 

 the 2nd of the present month (August). We w^ent by steamer from 

 Sligo to Portacloy, and had a most enjoyable run along the Sligo 

 coast, across Killala Bay, and the Mayo coast to our destination, 

 Portacloy. On the morning of our arrival we walked over the hill 

 to Spinks cliff, but saw no appearance of Eagles at the old haunt. 

 Next morning we engaged a four-oared curragh, and rowed along the 



