GOLDEN EAGLE'S HAUNT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18547, 3 November 1923, Page 7 (Supplement)

GOLDEN EAGLE'S HAUNT.

— ■ —- . ■„. - CHIMNEY STACK EYRIE. A strange bird of great size roosts daily on the peak of a cotton mill chimney, 200 ft. at Radcliftc, near Manchester. Crowds gather hourly to gaze at him, and the townspeople have decided that he is a golden eagle, who has deserted his eyrie among the peaks of untrodden solitude in. the Hebrides or the Scottish mainland. Why he has moved to the fuliginous air of Manchester is not clear, but it is admitted that there are birds, as there are men, who think Manchester is good as. any other place to live in. The bird has' strange habits. When the mill hooter sounds the closing hour in the evening he spreads vast pinions and soars until the smoke clouds swallow him. No one knows where he goes, but farmers arid small holders about Radcliffe believe that there are fewer lambs and fowls in the district since the strange bird came. If the bird is a golden eagle, his visit to Radcliffe is noteworthy. The golden eagle, " the King of Birds," companion of the wind and sun in airy fastnesses, is nearly three feet high. He has surpassing courage and power. He has been known to snatch wounded grouse under the barrels of the guns. He has picked up the coursed hare as 'the jaws of the hounds closed on the quarry. He has carried lambs and calves, and, old Scots' legends say, small children to his eyrie. Radcliffe is deeply interested in the golden eagle.