WITH BEAK AND CLAW 25 



wing-strokes, flew back to his eyrie to feed his little 

 ones with the booty. 



The hungry Fish-Hawk, robbed of his morning 

 catch, had no redress but to fly back to the lake to 

 catch another fish, in the hope that he might be able 

 to get home with it before the Eagle 's mate should 

 see him. Many a time before, his entire morn- 

 ing's fishing had thus been stolen from him before 

 his tyrants would allow him to take to his own 

 nest the results of his work. 



*'Some day," said Shan, aloud, ''I'm going to 

 get the eggs of that old Bald Eagle and pay him 

 out for thieving." 



Shan's indignation was just, yet, though he did 

 not know it, the Bald Eagle is not the worst, though 

 the largest, of the pirates of the air. The Jaegers 

 are even worse than pirates, they are parasites 

 who can only live by piracy. Though sea-birds, 

 with fish as their only diet, they do not catch fish 

 for themselves but live on the food which other 

 birds have caught. They are rarely seen, there- 

 fore, except in the company of Gulls and Terns, 

 whom they chase and threaten, as soon as they see 

 a fish caught, forcing the successful fisher to dis- 

 gorge the food he has already swallowed. 



Not less a buccaneer is the Frigate Bird or Man- 



