Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/33

 year, as shot at Curraghmore, the seat of the Marquis of Water- ford, early in June, 1837 ; and, at the end of the same month, an eyrie situated in the rocks above Counshenane* lake in the Come- ragh mountains, county of Waterford, was robbed of an eaglet of this species. On the 21st of April, 1841, he sent persons to the same eyrie to procure eggs, who succeeded in obtaining two, which seemed to be about a fortnight laid, and were very dissimi- lar in size and appearance. He states that this bird is met with in Knockmeledown, and the Galtee mountains, and is occasionally seen far from its haunts. In the " Fauna of Cork," it is said to breed on the borders of that county, and in Tipperary.

I have never known the eyrie of the golden eagle to be in ma- rine cliffs in Ireland. Mr. Macgillivray, who, in his History of British Birds, gives interesting particulars on this species from personal observation, states, on the authority of Mr. Forbes of South Ronaldshay, that it breeds on the headlands of Orkney (vol. 3, p. 230).

Docility, &c. — In the two excellent works, "Gardens and Mena- geries of the Zoological Society," and "Illustrations of British Ornithology," the golden eagle is characterized as indocile: in the latter work, Mr. Selby speaks from his own experience of two individuals which were kept by him for some years. But my friend Richard Langtry, Esq. of Fortwilliam, near Belfast, had in 1838 a bird of this species, which was extremely docile and trac- table.f It was taken in the summer of that year from a nest in Inverness-shire,J and came into Ins possession about the end of September. This bird at once became attached to its owner, and after being about a month in his possession, was given full liberty, — a high privilege to a golden eagle having the use of its wings, — but which was not abused, as it came to the lure whenever call-


 * Coumshingaun of Ordnance Survey Map.

t Mr. Yarrell (Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 13,) after alluding to Mr. Selby's birds, re- marks, that in the menageries of the Garden of the Zoological Society of London, where there are two golden and four white-tailed eagles, the keepers find the former the more tractable of the two species.

At Aberarder, in this county, I saw a golden eagle displayed among the numer- ous "winged vermin" on the gable end of the shooting lodge, in September, 1842.