AQUILA PENNATA. IIALI^ETUS ALBICILLA. 45 



AQUILA PENNATA (Gmelin). 

 BOOTED EAGLE. 

 [§ 64. One.—^Yom M. E. Verreaux's Collection, 1861.] 



HALIiEETUS ALBICILLA. 

 WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 



The Sea-Eagle in Scotland generally makes its nest in the high 

 cliffs of the coast^ where it lives upon fish, Guillemots, young Herring- 

 Gulls, &c. ; but it is also occasionally found breeding inland. In the 

 Shetlands an inaccessible eyrie was pointed out to me on the extreme 

 top of a stack, that is, a steep detached rock ; and I have seen 

 another such stack on the north-east coast of Scotland, which was 

 also said to have an eyrie on the top of it. One other instance I 

 have been told of, where a similar apparently exposed spot was chosen ; 

 but it is interesting to know that there is often quite a calm at these 

 elevated points, as they are sheltered by the current of air turned 

 upwards by the rock below. 



In inland situations, the Sea-Eagle used to be much less common 

 than the Mountain-Eagle, and is still considered a far rarer bird 

 than that. In a place where six or eight eyries might be counted 

 within a circle of as many miles, only one of them would be a Sea- 

 Eagle's. It generally establishes itself upon a rock or island in the 

 middle of a loch. Here it builds upon the ground, or in a tree, a 

 nest whose construction does not at all differ from that of the Golden 

 Eagle, there being always in it a certain amount of Luzula sylvatica. 

 The tree need by no means be a large one : I have seen two nests of 

 different years, in separate islands in one loch, each only about four 

 feet from the ground, in very small trees. One of these has been 

 elsewhere described erroneously as belonging to the Fish-Hawk ^, 

 which makes a very different nest. I can at this moment call to 

 mind nine instances where I know the localities of such island eyries 

 in past years. The old birds do not always calculate the depth of 

 the water, as there is one place at least to which a man can wade. 



' [St. Johu's 'Tour in Sutherlandsliire,' vol. i. p. 37. — Ed.] 



