THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 119 
Rabbit warrens, estuaries, the lakes in parks, and decoys, are the places most 
visited by the young birds on their migrations. In Ireland, where the White- 
tailed Eagle was once numerous, but few now survive, poison placed in carrion 
having accounted for most of them. Robert Gray considered the Isle of Skye the 
head quarters of the White-tailed Eagle in Scotland, and there was a time when 
every bold headland maintained its pair; but even there a remorseless war has 
been waged against them; fifty-seven shot on one estate, fifty-two on another, so runs 
the tale of blood, the nests, too, were destroyed by burning peats being let down 
into them by ropes! Harvie Brown writes: ‘There is no doubt about the marked 
decrease in the number of inhabited eyries of the White-tailed Eagle during the 
past fifteen years.” * It is only on the inaccessible cliffs of some of the remotest 
and smallest islands, like those of the Shiant group in the Outer Hebrides, that 
they have any chance of existence. ‘‘ Long may they continue in their inaccessible 
retreat; and may the broken, overhanging basalt columns, which project far beyond 
the giant ribs of similar structure down below, resist the tear and wear of time, 
and prove a sheltering roof to them!” 
According to Saunders the White-tailed Eagle is found in Europe in the 
valley of the Danube and in Turkey; in Scandinavia, Denmark, Northern Germany 
and Russia; while on migration it visits the rest of Europe, the Canaries, and 
Northern Africa. It is also found in Asia as far as China, and in Greenland. 
The nest, which resembles that of the Golden Eagle, and is also lined with 
Luzula, is usually placed upon a cliff above the sea; sometimes upon a crag in- 
land; frequently on a tree or bush on an island in a loch; sometimes on the 
ground. In Egypt the nest has been found in the reeds of Lake Menzaleh, 
resembling a gigantic nest of the Marsh-Harrier. The eggs, two in number, are 
laid in April; they are dull white, and measure about 2°85 inches, by 2°2 inches. 
This Eagle will live to a great age in captivity, but rarely becomes tame. 
However, the writer was once acquainted with a female that had attained a great 
state of docility, and took delight in having charge of a brood of chickens, turn 
about with a tame Kite. Both birds were the property of the Hon. T. Powys, 
(afterwards well-known as Lord Lilford, the distinguished Ornithologist) and were 
in charge of Osman, the Oxford bird-stuffer, in whose yard, in his undergraduate 
days, the writer often saw them, finding the Eagle with two or three chickens on 
her back, while she was engaged in breaking up food for others running about 
at her feet. 
An adult White-tailed Eagle was shot a few years since near Bridgwater, and 
purchased at a high price by an American gentleman then living in Taunton; he 
* Fauna of the Outer Hebrides—published 1888. 
