92 BIRD-HUNTING 



of the bird. A perfect cloud of feathers lay 

 by the nest, showing where the body had been 

 devoured. From the size and strength of the victim, 

 which has a spread of wing of nearly five feet, the 

 aggressor could have been nothing less than one 

 of this pair of Eagles. The head was afterwards 

 carried off, before I could fetch the camera to 

 photograph the scene of the tragedy, by a Marsh 

 Harrier ; but no Harrier would have the pluck to 

 attack a bird far heavier and stronger than itself. 

 Another time we saw the Eagle swoop at something 

 on the other side of a low point of land, and on 

 rowing to the spot found a freshly-killed Black- 

 headed Gull, which the Eagle had left where it lay 

 on seeing our approach. 



An attempt was made to photograph these 

 Eagles, which are also very fond of carrion, by 

 laying out on one of the islands a large dog which 

 we bought and killed. Focused on the carcase, 

 and carefully hidden among the herbage, the auto- 

 matic electric camera was placed, the shutter of 

 which was connected to the dog's hind leg by a 

 fine thread. This was left out all night, but our 

 hopes of an automatic photograph were doomed to 

 disappointment, for neither Eagles nor Vultures came 

 near it, so far as we could tell, and the carcase was 

 eventually disposed of by the humble but necessary 

 ' gentile.' 



