J 04 
THE EAGLE. 
as if aware at the same time of the uncertainty of always 
insuring a supply, particularly when they have, in addition 
to their own wants, their young to provide for, they are in 
the habit of collecting an over- abundance on the high rocks 
where their nests are situated, so as to have an ample stock 
in hand. And so well aware are the North American Indians 
of these stores, that an Eagle’s nest is familiarly called an 
Indian’s larder; from which the wild hunters can readily 
supply themselves, at least during the breeding and rearing 
season, from May to September, with a plentiful store of hares, 
ducks, and geese, besides fish. # 
In England, though large Eagles are now very rare, natu- 
ralists have met with similar instances. Mr. Willoughby, an 
excellent authority, mentions a nest which he saw in the 
woodlands, near the river Derwent, in the Peak of Derbyshire, 
about 150 years ago. He described it as about two yards 
square, formed of great sticks, resting one end on the ledge 
of a rock, and the other on two birch-trees, upon which was 
a layer of rushes, and over them a layer of heath, and upon 
the heath rushes again, upon which lay one young one, and 
an addle egg, and by them a lamb and a hare, and three 
heath-poults. 
But the most particular and curious account of one of 
these Eagle-nest larders, is related by a gentleman who was 
visiting at a friend’s house in Scotland, near which he went 
to see a nest, which for several summers two Eagles had 
occupied ; it was upon a rock or a hill. There was a stone 
within a few yards of it, about six feet long, and nearly as 
broad, and upon this stone almost constantly, hut always 
when they had young, the gentleman and his servants found 
a number of grouse, partridges, hares, rabbits, ducks, snipes, 
ptarmigans, rats, mice, &c., and sometimes kids, fawns, and 
lambs. When the young Eagles were able to hop the length 
of this stone, to which there was a narrow road hanging over 
a dreadful precipice, the Eagles, he learned, often brought 
hares and rabbits alive, and placing them before their young, 
* Hearne’s Journey . 
