FIERCE EAGLE BECOMES MAN'S FRIEND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

FIERCE EAGLE BECOMES MAN'S FRIEND

"yyiNGING its flight in freedom in the wilds of Skye is to-day a fierce brigand of the air that has come to love its natural enemy, man. It is a splendid male golden eagle. Eagles are now restricted to the Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland. Although protected by nature-loving landowners, they have a risky reputation with farmers, whose lambs they take from hillside pastuies; but this eagle, found in critical distress, was fortunate enough to meet in Mr. Alan Nicolson, of Ord, an island farmer with a warm spot in his heart for theso mighty outlaws. The Bird and the Trap Finding his dog attacking a disabled golden eagle, he rescued the bird and, seeing that it had a trap attached to one of its feet, took it home, removed

the trap, fed the captive, maintained it while it remained crippled, and completely won its confidence. The trap, which must have been borne from afar by the bird, for it was not of the sort used 011 the island, weighed just over two pounds, a trifle to a bird which can carry off a fawn or a lamb. The eagle's inability to rise when the dog attacked it was due to the lack of wind at the time, for eagles, like all other birds of great wing-span and' short legs, need a breeze to enable thein to rise into the air from the flat. On a height or a hillside, of course, "t%y~ Jaunch away and find a sustaining current below them. , • •. Even so, there were injured talons to heal, and, while the kindly,farmer' was playing the doctor and recalling the patient to health and strength on a liberal diet of rabbits, it grew so fond

How a Brigand Was Tamed

of him that in less than a week it took to perching on his shoulder.

The time came when the injuries were repaired and the bird was fit to take wing. Jt.was taken out and offered its liberty. The eagle showed a desire

to remain with the man who had saved it, and lingered long before it was induced to fly, but at last away it went, a majestic embodiment of strength, grace and beauty, over to the misty Cuillin Hills, where probably it was cradled and may have its great nest on some dizzy crag. Eagles have good memories, as British observers know from their returning for forty or fifty years in succession to build in the very same spot. Perhaps this bird will remember its friend, with whom it stayed six days, and pay him future visits. Let us hope it will spare his lambs.