I had a light canoe—decked fore and aft, and propelled by a double paddle —built on purpose at Greenock, and I took a fifty fathom rope to enable me to go down cliffs. I was joined during the first part of my trip by my friend the late T. E. Buckley, and we began work in the Isle of Skye in April. At that time the white-tailed eagle was so common in Skye that our host, Mr. Cameron of Glenbrittle on the west coast, told me that sixty had been killed in two years by himself and his shepherds, on account of the number of lambs they destroyed. We were able in two days to take no less than three nests, on a very small part of the coast. One of these was only fifteen to twenty feet from the top of the cliff at Rudha-nanclach and I was easily lowered into its nest. The other was a very difficult one to approach, either from below or above, and would have been impossible to take if I had not brought such a long rope. When we got to the top of the cliff (a very hard climb) the men refused to let me go down, as they said they would not be able to pull me up again, so we lowered Sandy Maclachlan, who was about four stone lighter than I, and who was a skilful and plucky climber. Now, I believe, the white-tailed eagle is quite extinct in the Hebrides, and the only ones breeding in Britain are a pair or two which may survive in the Shetland Islands, where they have been carefully protected for many years past.*
From Skye I went to Stornoway and thence to Eishken, the forest lodge of Park, then iented by Mr. Godman. There, in a very easy place, I got a golden eagle’s nest with two beautiful eggs, but we were entirely defeated in an attempt on a sea eagle’s nest in the Shiant Isles. This was so far from the top and the cliff overhung so much, that Maclachlan, whom we let down, became giddy from the twisting of the rope and could not swing himself into the nest. I was more fortunate with a peregrine’s nest at Loch Bhrollum in the Park of Lewis, from which two cock birds had been shot the same season by the keepers. I was able to shoot the hen from the top of the cliff as she flew off the nest, and have her now stuffed, with four beautiful eggs.
Bird lovers of the present day will probably say, “What a brute!” But in those days peregrines were almost as abundant as grouse in the islands, and if I had not shot her the keeper would have done so. I also got a snowy owl which had not yet returned from its winter quarters to the fells of Norway. But I never fired a shot at either of these noble birds again.
The gales which blow in these islands made it at times very difficult to get about, and I well remember having to crawl over a ridge where the wind was so high that I could not stand against it—and this in the month of May. After leaving Eishken I went to Lord Dunmore’s shooting lodge at Amhuinnsuidhe in North Harris and stayed with his forester, Finlay Macleod. Here I found another golden eagle’s nest in a cliff called Craig na Uishabreadh in Glen Meavag on April 30th, The nest could be approached from below within five yards, but it was impossible to get nearer to it without a rope; so the next day we came again, and sent two men to the top of the cliff who let the rope down to me. I tied it round me and got into the nest, where I found three beautiful eggs, which, though much incubated, I succeeded in preserving; they are one of the most valued
1 Mr. J.G. Millais states (1929) that both these pairs have been destroyed,
and the Sea Eagle as a breeding species is extinct in Great Britain.
