The Monarch 
of the Air. 
(i°6) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
A Risky Climb. 
We climbed over ledges of adaman¬ 
tine rock coated with bright green 
mosses as soft as plush, their interstices 
lined with rare fern. At length we at¬ 
tained a flat ridge, on which we paused 
a moment to look around and take 
breath beside a row of .gnarled old yews. 
Allan insisted on sitting down to smoke 
his pipe in comfort and take a pull at 
the flask. It was long past mid-day 
when we made a move for the culminat¬ 
ing effort. We had reached a great 
altitude; but we had still, inch by inch, 
to overcome some hundreds of narrow 
ledges, pulling ourselves up by the 
tough juniper and yew trees. Where such 
bushes did not come to our aid we were 
compelled to find the next ledge over¬ 
head by feeling for it with our hands, 
pulling up to it by power of muscle. 
Within about half an hour’s time we 
came out on a giddy, glittering, razor- 
edge of stone, which may have been 
quartz or felspar, immediately behind 
the eagles’ pinnacle. How far its roots 
struck down we could not possibly tell. 
At the Nest. 
The nest we looked for lay in a 
cranny on one side the pinnacle. It 
must have been 5 ft. in diameter, and 
was constructed mostly of pine twigs 
and lined with roots, grass, and some 
wool in the centre. There were traces 
of food left by the female bird; but I 
think that had our visit been deferred 
until May, when the Eaglets were being 
fed, we should have seen plenty of 
feathers, feet, bones, and skulls. We 
should have seen the remains of Grouse, 
Golden Plover, possibly Ptarmigan, 
Meadow Pipits, and the like, to say 
nothing of putrid pieces of lamb, hare, 
rabbit, and rat flesh. Plumage and 
pelage are, however, stripped clean; 
mammals and snakes are decapitated 
before a young bird is allowed to eat of 
them. On the lining of wool lay, as 
Aquila had foretold, two very big eggs 
with whitish shells, and these he was 
anxious to secure before either of their 
owners returned. To reach them we 
thought it expedient to use the rope and 
slings we had brought; indeed, I do not 
see how we could possibly have done 
without them, the cranny was so steep. 
Why both birds were away froin the eggs 
remains to this day something of a mys¬ 
tery to me. Possibly the male was forag¬ 
ing a great distance off, and the female 
had stolen away silently to inform him 
of the danger. 
A Fight for the Eggs. 
How great, then, was our consterna¬ 
tion when we heard a sudden screaming 
and wing-flapping just as Aquila stooped 
to seize the eggs. The chief proprietor 
had indeed returned, and she struck off 
my cap with her enormous wings, which 
next moment she furled so as to 
approach the nest. In a trice she had 
combed Aquila’s hair with her claws, 
while in rising to beat her back he sus¬ 
tained a severe blow by coming in con¬ 
tact with her bluish, horn-coloured beak. 
At this juncture the rope, none too long, 
was dragged completely through my 
hands, for while aiming stones at the 
bird Aquila lost his foothold and fell a 
matter of 12 ft. into a secondary cranny 
below the nest. In pursuing him the 
Eagle sustained a crushing, but after 
that mishap she seemed pleased to get 
away, and away she flew erratically, 
yelping not unlike a dog. It was a 
great relief to see Aquila climbing back, 
apparently unhurt. He had made quite 
sure of the eggs, and had placed them 
carefully in a hay-lined box, as if no¬ 
thing unusual had happened. He threw 
up to me the end of the rope, and I had 
him in a minute or two landed behind 
the pinnacle, where, mindless of the 
bruises on his forehead, we gloated over 
the eggs for a little time. They were 
big ovals of dirty white “ colour,” 
marked with a little rusty red; but more 
redness seems to come out after the eggs 
have found their place in the cabinet. 
We retraced our steps quickly, and 
found the deerkeeper reposing, quietly 
asleep, in the alcove just where we had 
left him. 
