in SHOOTING AN EAGLE 41 



ment of impatience, muttered, " 'Deed, Sir, but I'm no under- 

 standing it," — and whispered to me to go on to loolc over the 

 ridge, which I did, expecting to see the stag feeding, or lying 

 close below it. When I did look over, however, I saw the 

 noble animal at a considerable distance, picking his way down 

 the slope to join some half-dozen hinds who were feeding below 

 him, and who occasionally raised their heads to take a good 

 look at their approaching lord and master. " The Deil tak the 

 brute,'' was all that Donald said, as he took a long and far- 

 sounding pinch of snuff, his invariable consolation and resource 

 in times of difficulty or disappointment. When the stag had 

 joined the hinds, and some ceremonies of recognition had been 

 gone through, they all went quietly and steadily away, till we 

 lost sight of them over the shoulder of the next hill. " They'll 

 no stop till they get to Alt-na-cahr," said Donald, naming a 

 winding rushy burn at some distance off ; " Alt-na-cahr " mean- 

 ing the " Burn of many turns," as far as my knowledge of 

 Gaelic goes. And there we were constrained to leave them 

 and continue our ptarmigan-shooting, which we did with but 

 little success and less spirit. 



Soon' afterwards a magnificent eagle suddenly rose almost 

 at our feet, as we came to the edge of a precipice, on a 

 shelf of which, near the summit, he had been resting. Bang 

 went one barrel at him, at a distance of twenty yards. The 

 small shot struck him severely, and, dropping his legs, he 

 rose into the air, darting upwards nearly perpendicularly, 

 a perfect cloud of feathers coming out of him. He then 

 came wheeling in a stupefied manner back over our heads. 

 We both of us fired together at him, and down he fell with 

 one wing broken, and hit all over with our small shot. He 

 struggled hard to keep up with the other wing, but could 

 not do so, and came heavily to the ground within a yard of 

 the edge of the precipice. He fell over on his back at first, 

 and then rising up on his feet, looked round with an air of 

 reproachful defiance. The blood was dropping slowly out ot 

 his beak, when Donald foolishly ran to secure him, instead of 

 leaving him to die where he was ; in consequence of his doing 

 so, the eagle fluttered back a few steps, still, however, keeping 

 his face to the foe. But, coming to the edge of the precipice, 

 be fell backwards over it, and we saw him tumbling and 



