THE WAYS OF THE EAGLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE WAYS OF THE EAGLE.

There is 110 bird that I know, writes Seton Gordon in the Hill Birds of Scotland," which possesses the same strength, the "same gracefu'.ncss of flight, as the golden eagle. I think I first realised the remarkable powers of its soaring on a certain occasion when I -was sheltering behind a cairn on a hill-top over 3000 ft above sea-level. A westerly wind was sweeping the hill with such strength that progress had been difficult against it, yet a couple of eagles, flying dead against tho wind, moved past mo at a speed of between twenty and thirty miles an hour, without any perceptiblo motion of the wings. Since then I have often watched the black eagle (the Highlander's name for the golden eagle) wrestling with tho storm, and certainly he is at his best during a day of wild gales and driving showers of rain and sleet. During weather when only a faint breeze rustles the heather on the hillside the king of birds is laboured, even ungainly in his movements.