Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/47

 so soon as able to wing their way elsewhere. The inhabi- tants of the island believe, that the pair of old birds which frequent it, not only guard, and abstain from injuring their fowl, but that they will not suffer other birds of prey to molest them.* The people of Connemara generally, indeed, be- lieve that the eagle never takes away any fowl from about the houses in the vicinity of its nest. My informant has seen a sea eagle lift a duck from near the door of a house, at a distance from its eyrie, and bear it away, but being pursued by a number of gray crows (Corvus cornix), it dropped the prey, which was still alive, though much torn by its talons. This species of crow, which is abundant in the district, is said to be the " inveterate enemy of the eagle," and to gather from all quarters to harass and attack it, so soon as the royal bird comes in sight. The writer has visited fourteen eagles' nests, and robbed several of the eggs, which were never more than two in number. A few years ago it was considered a dangerous undertaking to rob an eyrie, and persons went armed with guns to protect the aggressor, but my informant has never himself been assailed, nor known men to be attacked t by the parent birds. They appear to breed for a number of years in the same nest, renewing it every season. One built in a yew tree, growing upon an island of the lake on

This idea may not be wholly imaginary. The party already mentioned as visiting Horn Head, &c., in 1845, saw, at Dunfanaghy, a singularly docile pet bird of this species, which had been taken as a nestling the year before in that vicinity. This bird had its liberty in a yard within the village, where it generally remained, but took occasional flights to the opposite side of the bay. It did not molest any of the fowls kept in the same yard, but immediately attacked any strange fowls that made their appearance. It may be added, that this eagle not only permitted, but took pleasure in having its plumage smoothed down by the hand of its owner.

t Mr. Macgillivray remarks, that, although under such circumstances, they seldom attempt to molest their enemy, he was told of their having twice done so in the island of Lewis (p. 227). The golden eagle, he observes, is bolder than the sea eagle, and has been known to attack the robbers of its eyrie : two instances are briefly given at p. 213. An article in the Quarterly Review for December, 1845, on Scrope's Days and Nights of Salmon-fishing, contains an excellent account of the habits &c, of the golden eagle. The attack of one of these birds on a boy about to rob an eyrie in Sutherlandshire is authentically given, ^and the adventurer named, who went single-handed to the task. The eagle fixed one talon in his shoulder, and the other in his cheek, but with the aid of his knife, he destroyed the bird, after a very severe combat. In the Wild Sports of the West, p. 107, a graphic account