THE SEA EAGLE. 
19 
In the Belfast mountains, far remote from any of its habita- 
tions, I was once, (October 2, 1832,) gratified by the sight 
of an eagle, which was soaring, attended first by one kestrel, 
and afterwards by two of these birds. The snowy whiteness of 
the tail proved it to be adult ; it remained in view for about a 
quarter of an hour, then disappeared in the direction of the Cave- 
hill. The last I ha/ve heard of being taken near Belfast, was 
trapped in the Deer Park, about thirty years ago. 
Late in the autumn of 1844, two eagles were observed flying 
over Ballydrain, a few miles from Belfast, by the same person 
who supplied the information respecting the Pairhead birds. 
When asked, was he sure of their having been eagles, the reply 
was : — “ Do you think I don't known the yelp of them ; '' and 
truly, their barking or yelping cry is most peculiar. 
When in August, 1836, at Sleive Donard,* the chief of the 
Mourne mountains, in the county of Down, a cliff situated quite 
inland, was pointed out as the “ Eagle's rock ; " — so named in 
consequence of having been at one period the eyrie of this bird. 
Our guide informed us, that eagles had not bred there of late 
years (their place being supplied by ravens), but that they an- 
nually build at less frequented places among the range of moun- 
tains. Here they are frequently met with by Lord Boden's 
gamekeeper, but are seldom seen so low down as Tollymore Park, 
where one only had been taken within the preceding nine years. t 
A well-known collector of objects of Natural History, who has 
spent much time among the mountains of Mourne, J stated in 
1831, that he had at various periods seen three or four pairs of 
eagles there, and once visited a nest in an inland situation, con- 
* Montagu obtained two sea eagles from this mountain, wbicb, although 2,796 feet 
in height, he terms “ a mountainous precipice, or craggy cliff impending the sea.” 
These birds “ were, on their arrival at Bristol, detained by an officer of excise, upon 
the plea that there was a duty upon all singing birds ! ” — Ornithological Diet. 
and Sujop. The individual from which Pennant drew up his description was taken in 
Galway. 
f Ten years afterwards, in May, 1846, the same keeper reported to me, that he 
“ feared ” (he then wanted eggs) there was but one eagle about the mountains of 
Mourne, where it is often seen at a particular rock. 
X Mr. Patrick Doran. 
c 2 
