AQUILA CHRYSAETOS, Brm. 
Golden Ea^de. 
o 
Falco chrysaetos, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 125. 
fulvus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 125. 
Aquila chrysaetos, Briss. Orn , tom. i. p. 431. 
Barthelemyi, Jaub. 
As civilization advances, this noble bird, the lord of our ancient forests, vrill either become extirpated or 
driven to seek an asylum in parts of the country where nature still preserves a savage aspect. High 
cultivation and its presence are incompatible ; the lamb and the Eagle ean never dwell together in peaee ; 
neither can the fawn or the roebuck live without molestation within the range of its haunts. The Highland 
shepherd and the keeper therefore do their utmost to destroy it ; and the time is probably not far distant 
when it will no longer have a place in the avifauna of the British Islands : hence a bird so frequently referred 
to in the Sacred Writings, which has ever been the theme of the poets, which some of the most powerful 
nations of the earth have employed as an emblem of their majesty and greatness, the flight-feathers of 
which are worn for the like reason in the bonnet of the Highland chieftain, and whose tail-feathers are 
employed by the sanguinary Indian to bedeck his head when dressed in battle array, will be entirely lost to 
us — a loss whieh would, I am sure, be a source of regret to every one who has a taste for nature ; and I 
therefore hope that our great landed proprietors will exert their influence to preserve the remnant of our 
Golden Eagles. To elfect this, however, without some combined efforts, will, I fear, be impracticable ; but 
as a love for and interest in the welfare of our indigenous animals is now animating the breasts of many 
among us, I trust that it will, for the future, rather be the object of protection than, as at present, of foolish 
destruction ; if it be, I feel assured that none other than the best results will follow. The Blue Hare, now 
so numerous, will furnish it with an abundanee of food, and thus the numbers of an animal which of late years 
has increased to such an extent as to have become a pest, will be diminished, and the balance of animal life, 
which the wanton destruction of our birds of prey has disturbed, will again he in part restored. That the 
Eagle, the Kestrel, and the OavI are essentially necessary to the equalization of the numbers of our indigenous 
mammals is certain ; and this I shall have constantly to speak of in the eourse of the present work. 
To show the amount of destruction dealt out to this noble bird and the Sea Eagle, the Sutherlandshire 
Expedition of Naturalists state that the number of Eagles paid for between March 1831 and March 1834 
was 171, besides 53 nestlings or eggs ; and a gamekeeper in the south-Avest of that county trapped 15 Eagles 
in three months of 1847, and almost as many in the winter of 1850-51. 
In times past the Golden Eagle was the regular denizen of all the hilly and mountainous districts 
of England, particularly those of Derbyshire, Cumberland, and M^estmoreland, many parts of Wales, 
the Avhole of Scotland and Ireland, ineluding their islands ; it is iioav only found in Argyll, Sutherland, 
and Ross shires in Scotland, the islands of Orkney and Skye, and the counties of Donegal, Kerry^ 
and Mayo in Ireland. Up to the last year (1862), two eyries at least were to he seen on the 
Black Mount, the property of the late Marquis of Breadalbaue, who made it a sine qua non that his 
foresters should at any time shoAv him an Eagle ; were this laudable conduct imitated by other 
enlightened proprietors, we should not have occasion to lament the gradual disappearance of this noble 
bird. It is one of these eyries that is represented in the fine druAving made by Mr. Wolf, from which the 
accompanying Plate was taken. Its more frequent haunts are in such districts as those mentioned ; but the 
bird is often to be met with in rocky situations in the neighbourhood of the sea, wherever it is likely to 
obtain an abundance of food. Although I have stated that the Golden Eagle is now confined to a limited 
area, it must not be understood that examples are not occasionally found in many or, indeed, in nearly 
every English county ; these chance visitors are, however, in almost all instances, birds of the year, or not 
more than tAvo years old ; they are probably the offspring of parents resident in Scotland : but they may be 
migrants from Norway, Sweden, or other distant countries ; for it is well knoAvn that the young of both our 
great Eagles, in obedience to a law which appears to influenee the whole of the Falconidae, wander further 
from their native home than the adults ; Avere these birds alloAved to remain unmolested instead of being 
ruthlessly shot, they Avould doubtless retire nortliAvard at the proper season, and form eyries for themselves. 
What are the other countries inhabited by this fine bird ? is a question which will naturally be asked by 
many of my readers ; to Avhich I would answer, that it is found throughout the whole of Europe, but is more 
numerous among the Alps, the Pyrenees, and other mountainous parts of the Continent, from Italy to 
NorAvay, than in the lowlands of Holland and many parts of Germany, Avhich latter countries, are, however. 
