THE SEA EAGLES. 67 



The attention of the parent bir(l to her eaglets has often been noticed. Sir Humphrey- 

 Davy had an ojiportunity of witnessing the instructions given, and thus records the fact : 

 " I once saw a very interesting sight above one of the crags of Ben Nevis, as I was 

 going in the pursuit of black game. Two parent eagles were teacliing their offspring, 

 two young birds, the manoeuvres of flight. They began by rising from the top of the 

 mountain, in the eye of the sim. It was about mid-day, and bright for this climate. 

 They at first made small circles, and the yomig birds imitated them. They paused on 

 their wings, waiting till they had made their first flight, and then took a second and 

 larger gyration, always rising towards the sun, and enlarging their circle of flight, so 

 as to make a gradually ascending spiral. The young ones still slowly followed, apparently 

 flying better as they mounted ; and they continued this subhme exercise, always rismg, 

 tUl they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost, and afterwards 

 their parents, to our aching sight." 



" Though certainly," says a naturaUst, " the eagles in some localities commit great 

 havoc among the lambs, and also destroy the gi-ouse when no larger game oflers itself, 

 it would be a great pity that this noble bird should become extinct in our Highland dis- 

 tricts, who, notwithstanding his carnivorous propensities, should be rather preserved than 

 exterminated. How pictm-esque he looks, and how perfectly he represents the genius loci, 

 as perched on some rocky point or withered tree, he sits unconcerned in wind and storm, 

 motionless and statue-hke, with his keen, stern eye, however, mtently following every 

 movement of the shepherd or of the sportsman, who, deceived by his apparent disregard, 

 attempts to creep within rifle-shot. Long before he can reckon on reaching so far with 

 his buUet, the bird launches himself into the air, and gradually sweeping upwards, wheels 

 high out of shot, leaving his enemy disappointed and vexed at having crept in vain through 

 bog and over rock, in expectation of carrying home so glorious a trophy of his skill. 

 When intent on his game, the eagle frequently will venture within a short distance of 

 the grouse-shooter or deer-stalker. I have seen him pounce (no, that is not the proper 

 word, for he rather rushes,) down on a pack of grouse, and, with outspread wings, he 

 so puzzles and confuses the birds, that he seizes and carries off two or three before they 

 know what has happened, and in the very face of the astonished sportsman and his dogs. 

 The mountain hare, too, is carried off by the eagle with as much apparent ease as the 

 mouse is borne away by the kestrel." 



The Sea Eagles of M. Sa\'igny form a less noble as well as a less typical group than 

 the true eagles, from which they recede considerably both in organization and habits. They 

 have all a greater or less tendency to change, in a remarkable degree, the colour of their 

 plumage on the head and neck as they advance in age, evincing in tlus, as in several other 

 respects, an approximation to certain South American grovips, in which those parts are 

 feathered in the young state and denuded in maturity, and through them to the vultures, 

 in which the head and neck are, in all stages of their growth, covei-ed with a silky down. 



In the choice of their food, the Sea Eagles are far less scrupulous than their brethren 

 on the land. Inhabiting most commonly the sea-coast, or the banks of the larger rivers 

 and inlets, they prey chiefly on fishes and aquatic birds. These they usually carry off 

 to devour at their leisure either on the rocks or in their nests. But occasionally, when 

 all other resources fail, they fix themselves on the dead carcases of animals which are 

 thrown upon the shore, and their manner of feeding under such circ\imstances closely 

 resembles the disgusting voracity of the vultiu-es. For hours, and sometimes for days 

 together, they remain stationary upon the putrid carrion, and quit it only when it no 

 longer affords the means of satiating the cravings of their appetite. 



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