THE SEA EAGLE. 
23 
so soon as able to wing their way elsewhere. The inhabi- 
tants of the island believe, that the pair of old birds which 
frequent it, not only guard, and abstain from injuring their 
fowl, but that they will not suffer other birds of prey to 
molest them. - * The people of Connemara generally, indeed, be- 
lieve that the eagle never takes away any fowl from about the 
houses in the vicinity of its nest. My informant has seen a sea 
eagle lift a duck from near the door of a house, at a distance from 
its eyrie, and bear it away, but being pursued by a number of 
gray crows ( Corvus cornix ), it dropped the prey, which was still 
alive, though much torn by its talons. This species of crow, 
which is abundant in the district, is said to be the “ inveterate 
enemy of the eagle,” and to gather from all quarters to harass 
and attack it, so soon as the royal bird comes in sight. The 
writer has visited fourteen eagles^ nests, and robbed several of the 
eggs, which were never more than two in number. A few years 
ago it was considered a dangerous undertaking to rob an eyrie, 
and persons went armed with guns to protect the aggressor, but 
my informant has never himself been assailed, nor known men to 
be attacked + by the parent birds. They appear to breed for a 
number of years in the same nest, renewing it every season. 
One built in a yew tree, growing upon an island of the lake on 
* This idea may not be wholly imaginary. The party already mentioned as visiting 
Horn Head, &c., in 1845, saw, at Dunfanaghy, a singularly docile pet bird of this 
species, which had been taken as a nestling the year before in that vicinity. T his 
bird had its liberty in a yard within the village, where it generally remained, but 
took occasional flights to the opposite side of the bay. It did not molest any of the 
fowls kept in the same yard, but immediately attacked any strange fowls that 
made their appearance. It may be added, that this eagle not only permitted, but 
took pleasure in having its plumage smoothed down by the hand of its owner. 
t Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that, although under such circumstances, they seldom 
attempt to molest their enemy, he was told of their having twice done so in 
the island of Lewis (p. 227). The golden eagle, he observes, is bolder than the sea 
eagle, and has been known to attack the robbers of its eyrie : two instances are 
briefly given at p. 213. An article in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, 
on Scrope’s Days and Nights of Salmon-fishing, contains an excellent account of the 
habits &c., of the golden eagle. The attack of one of these birds on a boy about 
to rob an eyrie in Sutherlandshire is authentically given, and the adventurer named, 
who went single-handed to the task. The eagle fixed one talon in his shoulder, and 
the other in his cheek, but with the aid of his knife, he destroyed the bird, after a 
very severe combat. In the Wild Sports of the West, p. 107, a graphic account 
