4 
FALCONIM. 
the Horn. When visiting about the same time the precipitous 
mountain of Bosheen, near Dunfanaghy, in that county, I was 
told that for a long time previous to the preceding twelve years, a 
pair of eagles had built their eyrie in one of the inaccessible cliffs, 
and as their young advanced in growth, they levied such contri- 
butions from the surrounding neighbourhood, that the country- 
people finally resolved upon their destruction. This was effected 
by lowering from the summit of the precipice a lighted brand, 
which ignited and consumed the nest, and three unfortunate eaglets 
fell scorched and dead to the ground. The old birds from that 
time deserted the mountain. The situation selected for this eyrie 
indicates that the species was most probably the golden eagle.* 
One of these birds, shot at the end of November, 1837, in the 
county of Londonderry, has come under my notice. 
In October, 1833, when looking over a collection of the Brit- 
ish Falconida belonging to Wm. Sinclaire, Esq. with Mr. Adams, 
lately gamekeeper at Glenarm Park (county of Antrim), he at once 
recognised a golden eagle as the species of which he had killed 
four individuals in that locality. The first he saw, was in the 
month of March, when two visited the park. At this time there 
were but five lambs dropped, and on each of the first two days of 
the eagles'’ appearance, a couple of them were carried off. Find- 
ing that lambs were in such request with these birds, the keeper 
procured two as bait for his traps, and successfully, as both eagles 
were captured. In November, a third individual was seen in pur- 
suit of a hare by my informant and several other persons. The 
poor animal took refuge under every bush that presented itself, 
but, as often as she did, the eagle approached the bush so near as 
apparently to beat its top with his wings, and thereby forced the 
hare to leave it. In this way she was eventually driven to open 
ground, where the eagle soon came up with, and bore her off in 
* Mr. R. Ball mentions a similar circumstance, in the following note. “ In the 
summer of 1837, I saw a pair of golden eagles in the county of Kerry, that were 
proprietors of an eyrie in a cliff, from which they for a long time issued to commit 
depredations on the poultry and lambs of the neighbouring peasantry, who in vain 
endeavoured to get at their nest. At length a boy contrived to sling fire into it, and 
so destroyed the young, hut the old birds still boldly defy all attempts made for their 
destruction.” 
