Accipitres 121 



particularly on the head, tail, and under parts, but 

 the chief distinction lies in the feet, which are feathered 

 down to the toes. In some years regular incursions 

 of this species take place, especially on our eastern 

 coasts, but it also occurs in autumn as an irregular 

 but fairly common migrant from its breeding quarters 

 in Scandinavia and north Russia, whence it extends 

 across Asia and even to Alaska. The habits, allowing 

 for a more northerly habitat, are the same as those 

 of its congener ; it is more apt to inhabit treeless 

 country, and has a somewhat stronger flight. 



The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetus) is a bird of 

 the mountains, and is found also, in many districts, 

 in forest country. It is distributed over the whole 

 area lying between Lapland and Japan, Spain, north 

 Africa, and the Himalayas, and breeds in North 

 America, though in Britain it is now restricted to 

 the highlands of Scotland, where it is by no means 

 uncommon. Up to the middle of last century the 

 nest might be found in the lowlands, and some century 

 and a half previously in Derbyshire and Wales. The 

 Cheviots and Lakeland Hills were occupied a good deal 

 later. The nest is usually in a big clifE or in some smaller 

 rock up the hill valleys, but abroad, and occasionally 

 in Britain, a tree is chosen to support the huge mass 

 of sticks, which is lined with grass, or in Scotland with 

 Wood-rush (Luzula sylvatica) ; the two eggs are rarely 

 pure white and vary much in the richness of their 

 purplish red, rufous or lilac markings. This Eagle 

 preys upon weakly lambs, fawns, hares, rabbits and 

 other mammals, birds, and even carrion ; its flight is 

 very powerful, as may be well seen when it pursues 

 a grouse ; its cry is shrill with a harsher termination. 



