BIRDS OF PREY. 



attacks of the birds during his descent. Gray 

 graphically describes how the nests were 

 annually plundered, upon one of which occa- 

 sions he was present. The two species which 

 bred in the district were the White-tailed or Sea 

 Eagle and the Golden Eagle. Wordsworth tells 

 how they built in one of the precipices over- 

 looking Red Tarn, in a recess of Helvellyn, and 

 that the birds used to wheel and hover over his 

 head as he fished these lonely waters. When 

 we last visited the spot, the silence was only 

 broken 'by the hoarse croaking of a couple of 

 Ravens, the sole remaining relics of the original 

 " Red Tarn Club." 



An instance is related of an Eagle which, 

 having pounced on a shepherd's dog r carried it 

 to a considerable height ; but the weight and 

 action of the animal effected a partial liberation, 

 and left part of its flesh in the eagle's beak. 

 The dog was not killed by the fall. It re- 

 covered from the wound, but was so intimidated 

 that it would never go that way again. The 

 son of the owner of the dog shot, near Legber- 

 thwaite, at one of the eagles, which he wounded. 

 This bird was found by a farmer, about a 

 week afterwards, in a state of great exhaustion, 



