166 
GOLDEN EAGLE. 
In England and the south of Scotland the 
Golden Eagle may be accounted rare, very few 
districts of the former being adapted to its dis 
position, or suitable for breeding places. Some 
parts of Derbyshire are recorded as having pos- 
sessed eyries ; in the mountainous parts of Wales 
there are others, and the precipices of Cumber- 
land and Westmoreland also boasted of them. 
Upon the wild ranges of the Scottish Border, one 
or two pairs used to breed, but their nest has not 
been known for twenty years, though a straggler 
in winter sometimes is yet seen amidst theii 
defiles. It is not until we really enter the 
Highlands of Scotland by one of the grand and 
romantic passes, that this noble bird can be said 
occasionally to occur, and it is not until we reach 
the very centre of their “ wildness,” that he can 
be frequently seen. But the species must be 
gradually, though surely decreasing, for such is 
the depredation committed among the flocks 
during the season of lambing, and which is the 
time when a large supply of food is required 
by the parent birds for their young, that every 
device is employed, and expense incurred by 
rewards, for their destruction. From March, 
1831, to March, 1834, in the county of Suther- 
land alone, one hundred and seventy-one old 
birds, with fifty-three young and eggs, were 
