150 EAGLE. 



leaving only one addled egg- behind. The old Eagles being so furious 

 as to create serious alarm, neither the nest nor colour of the egg were 

 noticed. Some fragments of flesh were in the nest. 



The Eaglets were covered with a glossy, dark, murry-coloured down. 

 A basket was attached to the ropes that conveyed the men down : into 

 this the young birds were put ; but from the violence and amazing 

 strength of the parent birds, they were with difficulty carried off. These 

 birds were not twelve months old when we received them. On their 

 first moulting they became much darker, particularly about the breast 

 and thighs, the latter almost wholly of a dusky black. At two years old 

 the base of the bill became yellow : in the third year there was not any 

 material change. At this time one of them killed and devoured the 

 other, probably from some neglect in feeding them, as before that event 

 they lived together in perfect harmony. 



The bill of this bird is rather longer, and more straight towards the 

 base, than is usual with this tribe, a circumstance, probably, which in- 

 duced Linnseus to class it with the vulture ; but as no part of its head 

 or neck is bare of feathers, the characteristic mark of that genus, we 

 have followed the example of later authors, and continued it amongst the 

 Eagle or falcon genus. It inhabits Scotland and the Orkneys, from 

 which place an acquaintance of ours had two taken from a nest in the 

 highest cliffs in that island, in which there were three young. Latham 

 says, that Dr. Heysham informed him of a nest of one of this species, 

 near Keswick, in Cumberland, in which was found a trout, weighing 

 about twelve pounds ; and between the upper and lower lakes of Killar- 

 ney, is a rock called the Eagle's nest, originating from the circumstance 

 of its breeding there annually. The bird mentioned by Dr. Heysham 

 was obtained alive, and had been in his possession about ten years 

 when he communicated the circumstance to Latham. In that bird it 

 was six or seven years before the tail became white ; those from which 

 our description is taken were about three years old. 



From the astonishing height these and some other birds fly, we are 

 led to believe that they are capable of living in a much lighter atmos- 

 phere than any other animals. From the top of some of the highest 

 mountains in Scotland, we have seen several of them soaring together 

 at so great a distance as to appear scarce larger than a swallow. It is 

 said to prey indiscriminately on land animals, fish, and aquatic birds, 

 and probably every animal of inferior strength suffers from its rapacity. 



Two of this species contending in the air over Loch Lomond, in 

 the Scottish Highlands, became so firmly grappled to each other by 

 their talons, that they were precipitated into the water. The upper- 



