AQUILA CHRYSAÉTOS, Bri».
Golden Eagle.
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'iivilization advances, this nohle hird, the lord of our ancient forests, will 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 can never dwell together in peace;
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 i t; 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 o f 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 which would, I am sure, be a source of regret to every one who has a taste for n atu re; and I
therefore hope th at our great landed proprietors will exert their influence to preserve the remnant of onr
Golden Eagles. ' To effect this, however, without some combined efforts, will, I fear, be impracticable; but
as a love for and interest in the welfare o f 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 abundance 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 be in part restored. That the
Eagle, the Kestrel, and the Owl 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 course 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 o f Eagles paid for between March 1831 and March 1834
was 171, besides 53 nestlings or eg g s ; and a gamekeeper in the south-west of that county trapped 15 Eagles
in t h r e e m o n t h s o f 1 8 4 7 , a n d a lm o s t a s m a n y in t h e w i n t e r o f 1 8 5 0 - 5 1 .
In times past the Golden Eagle was the regular denizen of all the hilly and mountainous districts
o f England, particularly those o f Derbyshire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, many parts of Wales,
the whole o f Scotland and Ireland, including their islands; it is now only found in Argyll, Sutherland,
and Boss shires in Scotland, the islands of Orkney and Skye, and the counties of Donegal, Kerry,
and Mayo 8 Ireland. Up to the last year (1862), two eyries a t least were to be seen on the
Black Mount, the property o f the late Marquis o f Breadalbane, who made it a sine ,n a non that his
foresters should a t any time show him an Eagle; were this laudable conduct imitated by other
enlightened proprietors, we should not have occasion to lament the gradual disappearance o f this noble
bird I t is one of these eyries that is represented in the fine drawing made by Mr. Wolf, from which the
accompanying Plate was taken. Its more frequent haunts are in such districts as those mentioned; but t le
bird is often to be met with in rocky situations in the neighbourhood of the sea, wherever it is likely to
obtain an abondance 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, o r not
more than two years old ; they are probably the offspring o f parents resident in Scotland : but they may be
migrants from Norway, Sweden, or other distant countries ; for it is well known that the young of both our
great Eagles, in obedience to a law which appears to influence the whole of the Falcomdie, wander further
from their native home than the adults: were these birds allowed to remain unmolested instead of being
ruthlessly shot, they would doubtless retire northward a t the proper season, and form eynes for themselves.
What are the other countries inhabited by this fine b ird? is a question which will naturally be asked by
many of my read ers; to which 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 o f the Continent, from I ta y to
Norway, than in the lowlands of Holland and many parts of Germany, which latter countries, are, however,