air playing with one another and uttering from time to
time a sharp yelp or bark. The first Plate represents a
specimen in the plumage of the first or second year;
the second, in adult plumage, was taken from a sketch
of an old female sent to me from a nest in Ireland in
1854, and still alive in good health and plumage at
Lilford, February 1890.
The Highland shepherds accuse the White-tailed
Eagle of destroying many lambs, and there is, I fear, no
doubt that the accusation is well founded; but in Epirus
I was begged by some of the pastoral and more or less
brigand fraternity to spare the old birds at a nest on the
shores of the Gulf of Arta, on account of their services
in driving away other birds of prey; these individuals,
however, were Greeks, and probably lied, and, although
I scrupulously attended to their request, I am inclined
to think that it was based on some superstition rather
than on the reason alleged.
