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Show 1874.] OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE IN INDIA. 209 and Afghanistan make it a resort for many species of birds not often met with in other parts of India. It is unnecessary for me to give any detailed description of the plumage of the adult Eagle ; suffice it to say that it corresponded in every point most exactly with the account of A. chrysaelos given in Dr. Jerdon's work. The site of the nest (which I visited on a subsequent occasion) was well chosen for retirement and impregnability. A deep rugged gorge or ravine ran almost perpendicularly down the eastern face of a mountain nearly 9000 feet high. Its sides were steep and difficult of access, with precipitous cliffs and walls of rock, among the clefts and shelves of which deodars and pine trees of various kinds had succeeded in finding soil enough to cling to. This sort of ground was varied in places by steep slopes, slippery with dry grass and withered pine-needles, and generally ending in a perpendicular drop. The watercourse which formed the bed of the ravine below was quite inaccessible; and the mountain-sides above and around were clothed with dense pine-forest. Guided by the Goorkhas who had brought me the birds, I climbed with much difficulty down the face of the right bank of the ravine until I arrived at the tree which supported the nest. This was a large deodar, growing from a ledge which here ran along the face of the precipice, and overhanging a perpendicular drop of some 150 feet; the tree was of large size and destitute of lower branches, and, especially in such a situation, very difficult to climb; one of m y Goorkhas, however, had succeeded in getting up by a small deodar which grew close by and almost touching the large one. In spite of the assistance this afforded the task was a very dangerous one ; and the risk was greatly increased by the hostile attitude of the old birds (for both male and female were present), who came closer and closer to the climber with angry swoops, and would doubtless have attacked him had it not been for his companions at the foot of the tree, one of whom at length shot the female eagle as she sailed close past him. The nest, which was about 30 feet up in the tree, was a solid though rough-looking structure, built of dry and withered pine-branches and other wood. Some of these were of a much greater size than any Eagle would be deemed capable of lifting; and some, from their appearance, must have been broken off the trees in their green state. The whole formed a mass about 6 feet high and 4 feet broad at top, and must have weighed several hundredweight. It rested against the main trunk of the tree, and was supported by and interlaced with the branches in its neighbourhood. The top was littered roughly with grass and roots, which formed a kind of lining for the young bird to rest on. The latter when first brought to me was not, as far as I could judge, more than ten days old. He was as large as a moderate-sized fowl, and entirely covered with white down, the cere and feet yellow, bill and claws black, irides dark brown. His gradual progress is noted below in the form of the rough journal which I kept at the time, viz.:- |
