116 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
of two eggs, and doubtless even higher prices have been obtained. Golden Eagles 
return year after year to the same eyrie; incubation lasts about 21 days; the 
nestlings are at first covered with white down. When they are able to leave the 
nest the old Eagles teach them to kill their own prey ‘“‘by dashing among a 
covey of Ptarmigan poults, which gives the awkward young Eagles a good oppor- 
tunity of catching one when separated from the old birds.” On the Continent 
the nest of the Golden Eagle is often placed in a tree. 
An Eagle in captivity, too often dirty, and with bedraggled and broken 
feathers, is a forlorn sight, and an object for the deepest commiseration of any 
lover of birds. A pair, taken from a nest in Scotland in 1877, throve remarkably 
well in Lord Lilford’s aviaries where, from the care bestowed upon them, they 
were always in health and in perfect plumage; the hen bird began to lay in 1888 
an annual egg, generally devouring it as soon as it was laid; one, however, that 
was rescued from her, and is now in the writer’s cabinet, is a very well marked 
egg considering it was produced in captivity. The eggs are subovate, and measure 
from 3°23 to 2°72 inches, by from 2°55 to 2°11 inches. 
The Golden Eagle preys chiefly upon mountain hares, rabbits, young lambs, 
calves of red deer, occasionally upon carrion; more rarely upon birds, though it 
sometimes pounces upon a Ptarmigan or Grouse, and will hover over and try to 
seize wild ducks. 
‘On a bright hot day, without much wind, Eagles are fond of soaring round 
and round at a great height above the top of a mountain, * * * in this manner 
they can fly for some time without any perceptible motion of the wings, though 
the tail is often turned from side to side to guide the flight. The points of the 
primary quills are always rather turned up and separated, as is shewn in one of 
Landseer’s beautiful pictures, in which an Eagle is flying across a loch to a dead 
stag which has already been discovered by a fox.” (R. Gray—Birds of the West 
of Scotland). These soaring flights are considered to be more for the purpose of 
exercise than for a search for prey. 
According ‘to Dresser the range of the Golden Eagle embraces almost the 
whole of the Palearctic Region, for it occurs from Northern Scandinavia down to 
North Africa, and from Spain right across Europe into Dauria, in Eastern Asia, 
ranging south to the Himalayas. It also extends from the Arctic down to the 
temperate districts of North America. 
In form the Golden Eagle is massive and powerful; the head is round and 
flattened on the top; there is a superciliary ridge above the eyes; the bill is 
shorter than the head, very deep, and compressed towards the end. he neck is 
of moderate length; broad shoulders; legs rather long and very muscular; tarsi 
