G 
FxVLCONID.i^. 
entangled by its claws to an account of tlie mode of capturing 
the lisli, the step is easy. As an instance of how such tales 
are fostered and spread abroad, I may mention that a friend 
of my own once pointed out to me what he doubtless believed 
to be an eagle sailing ashore with outspread wings upon the 
back of a halibut; my humble suggestion that the bird was a 
cormcrant standing drying its wings upon a nearly submerged 
skerry was, I fear, received with contempt, and I afterwards 
heard my friend bring forward the above of the theory 
to some ornithological guests. While uj^on the subject of 
aquiline tradition, it may be added that every eagle’s nest in 
Orkney and Shetland is pointed out as the nest to which the 
world-renowned baby was carried in days of yore. 
There seems to be no doubt that the White-tailed Eagle 
pairs for life, though whence and by what means a new partner 
is obtained when one has been destroyed is a mystery. Not 
many years ago, while a nest was in progress, the female bird 
was shot, and immediately afterwards the male disappeared, 
returning, however, in the course of a week, with a new mate. 
The latter was also mercilessly shot, but after an absence of 
about ten days the male once more returned, accompanied by 
another female, after which they were allowed to complete 
their nest and rear their young brood in peace. Although it 
is not until the begining of May that the young are hatched, 
tlie birds are seen in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest 
as early as the middle of March, and shortly afterwards they 
begin such repairs as the wear and tear by the last brood, 
and the storms of the previous winter, may have rendered 
necessary. Two eggs are usually laid, sometimes three; but 
1 never heard of more than two being hatched. The only 
nest I ever saw containing eggs was in a high cliff in the 
island of Fetlar, rather nearer to the top of the cliff than to 
the bottom, and so placed beneath overhanging rocks that it 
could only l)c readied liy means of a rope. It consisted of 
a mass of dead [ilants and sea-weed stalks, tliickly covered 
about tlie middle witli wool and hair. The eggs (on the 14tli 
