188 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



and gives the following dimensions : ' From the point of one 

 wing to the other 6 foot 4 inches. From the end of the Beeke to 

 the point of ye Tale 3 f . 4 in.' A similar capture of an Eagle 

 occurred in the same countiy ten years later : ' Grisedale. About 

 the year 1679 one Christopher Daws, 24 years of age, spying 

 an Eagle in the bottom of this Dale, wh. was feeding on a 

 sheep ; and either for want of air to waft her, or by haueing 

 fill'd her belly too full was not able to rise : he struck freely at 

 her w th his fell staff and broake her wing ; upon wh. she be- 

 took herselfe for shelter to a great stone, and thence made her 

 salleys as she saw occasion, wounding him in the leggs w th her 

 Tallons, and beating him briskely with her wings. But at 

 last when he had no other shift, he fell down upon her w th his 

 whol body ; and took her alive.' No further evidence is forth- 

 coming until Pennant's visit to the Lakes, when he wrote of 

 the mountains at the head of Windermere : ' Among the birds 

 which possess this exalted tract, the eagles are the first in rank : 

 they breed in many places. 1 If one is killed, the other gets a new 

 mate, and retains its ancient aery. Those who take their nests 

 find in them great numbers of moor game : 2 they are besides 

 very pernicious to the heronries : it is remarked, in the laying 

 season of the herons, when the eagles terrify them from their 

 nests, that crows, watching the opportunity, will steal away their 

 e^gs.' 3 Nicolson and Burn recur to the eyrie in Patterdale : 

 ' In the head of the dale, is a rocky mountain called Eagles Crag ; 

 and eagles to this day [1777] frequent and breed in the moun- 

 tains thereabouts.' The Bev. W. Bichardson tells us that ' A pair 

 of the Golden Eagles had an aerie in Martindale two successive 

 years ; the first year the female was shot, and the male, after an 

 absence of about three weeks, returned with another female. 

 The next year, 1789, the male was killed, after which the 

 female disappeared.' 



When visiting Martindale, October 28, 1891, I walked to the 



1 The italics are mine. 



2 The fact that these Eagles fed on Grouse points almost certainly to the 

 Golden Eagle, which would be certain to prey largely on Red Grouse in 

 the absence of blue hares. 



3 History and Antiquities of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, 

 vol. i. p. 410. 



