BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 199 
determine the status of these two birds in Dumfriesshire at 
the beginmng of the nineteenth century. There seems, how- 
ever to be a consensus of opinion that it was the White-tailed 
Eagle that nested at Loch Skene. In an account of Moffat 
parish, compiled in 1792, we find the foUowing : " Loch 
Skeen is the only lake in the parish. It is 1,100 yards in 
tength, of unequal breadth, where broadest about 400 yards 
The depth is not known. There is a smaU island in it' 
where the eagles bring out their young in great safety 
as the water is deep, and no boat upon the lake."* In 
1834 appears the following statement : " The only rare 
animal that has been known to frequent this parish [i.e., 
Tweedsmuir Peeblesshire] belongs to the feathered tribe 
and IS M Erne, or White-tailed Eagle (the young bird, 
wt-. 1^^' °' ^''^'^ ossifragus; the old bird, the 
White-tailed Eagle, the Falco aJbicilla,) which at one 
time used to hatch in an island in Loch Skeen, and 
to nestle among the clefts around Tala Linnfoots So 
great were its ravages among the sheep, that every effort 
was made to extirpate it, and for many years past there has 
been reason to think that these efforts were successful 
axxt in the course of the season just closed [i.e., 1833] it 
reappeared m the same as weU as in other parts of the parish 
and committed several depredations. It had well-nish 
earned ofi a shepherd's boy, but fortunately it was dis- 
covered hovering over its destined victim, and driven off 
just before it had pounced upon its prey."t The date of 
the above statement and the general tone of it, leads me 
to suspect that it may refer to the Golden Eagle kiUed by 
Bauldie Hairstanes (see page 196) but since the White-tailed 
Jiagle IS expressly named, I have quoted it here 
" W. L." wrote in March, 1837, " Not many years ago, the 
eagle was often seen taking a view of the lower mountains 
of Selkirkshire, and was a native of the neighbouring county 
of Dumfries, or, rather, of the alpine boundary between the 
* Suu. Acct. Scot, Vol. II., p. 287. 
t New Slat. Acct. Scot., Vol. III., Peeble,, pp. 60, 61. 
