THE EAGLE. 
125 
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 gen- 
tleman who was visiting at a friend's house in Scot- 
land, 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, but 
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, taught them to kill, and 
tear them to pieces, as a cat brings live mice to her 
kittens, and teaches them to kill them. Sometimes, it 
seems, hares, rabbits, rats, &c., not being sufficiently 
weakened by wounds, got off from the young ones, 
while they were amusing themselves with them ; and 
one day a rabbit escaped into a hole, where the 
old Eagle could not find it. The parent bird, another 
day, brought to her young ones the cub of a fox, 
which, after it had fought well, and desperately hit- 
ten the young ones, attempted to make its escape up 
the hill, and would, in all probability, have accom- 
plished it, had not the shepherd, who was watching 
the motion of the Eagles, with a view to shoot them. 
