Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/43

 In the Belfast mountains, far remote from any of its habita- tions, I was once, (October 2, 1832,) gratified by the sight of an eagle, which was soaring, attended first by one kestrel, and afterwards by two of these birds. The snowy whiteness of the tail proved it to be adult ; it remained in view for about a quarter of an hour, then disappeared in the direction of the Cave- hill. The last I have heard of being taken near Belfast, was trapped in the Deer Park, about thirty years ago.

Late in the autumn of 1844, two eagles were observed flying over Ballydrain, a few miles from Belfast, by the same person i who supplied the information respecting the Fairhead birds. When asked, was he sure of their having been eagles, the reply was : — "Do you think I don't known the yelp of them;" and truly, their barking or yelping cry is most peculiar.

When in August, 1836, at Sleive Donard,* the chief of the Mourne mountains, in the county of Down, a cliff situated quite inland, was pointed out as the "Eagle's rock;" — so named in consequence of having been at one period the eyrie of this bird. Our guide informed us, that eagles had not bred there of late years (their place being supplied by ravens), but that they an- nually build at less frequented places among the range of moun- tains. Here they are frequently met with by Lord Boden's gamekeeper, but are seldom seen so low down as Tollymore Park, where one only had been taken within the preceding nine years.f A well-known collector of objects of Natural History, who has spent much time among the mountains of Mourne,% stated in 1831, that he had at various periods seen three or four pairs of eagles there, and once visited a nest in an inland situation, con-

Montagu obtained two sea eagles from this mountain, which, although 2,796 feet in height, he terms "a mountainous precipice, or craggy cliff impending the sea." These birds "were, on their arrival at Bristol, detained by an officer of excise, upon the plea that there was a duty upon all singing birds!" — Ornithological Dict. and Supp. The individual from which Pennant drew up his description was taken in Galway.

f Ten years afterwards, in May, 1846, the same keeper reported to me, that he "feared" (he then wanted eggs) there was but one eagle about the mountains of Mourne, where it is often seen at a particular rock.

X Mr. Patrick Doran.