1 8 NESTS AND LGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



from wliicli they rose about two feet, and were of vast ciicumfereuce aud 

 great interior capacity, the branches of trees and other matter comprising 

 each nest being enough to fill a small cart. Captain Cook also found one 

 of these enoi-mous nests on an island on the east coast, which he called 

 Eagle Island. 



For many years there existed an aerie of the Sea Eagle on Cape 

 Wollomai, Pliilhp Island, Victoria. It was visited by a party of field 

 naturalists in November, 1886, when it was found to contain a pair of 

 fully-fledged Eaglets. The following year the Field Naturalists' expedition 

 to King Island, Bass Strait, observed several nests of the Sea Eagle on 

 dead bhie gum-trees (Eucahjpiiix yinlmliis) on that island. 



Near Coomooboolaroo, Queensland, the Wliite-bellied Sea Eagle lays 

 in June ; while Mr. K. Broadbent found on the Cardwell beach, also in 

 June, a nest containing young, built in a tea-tree (Melaleuca ). From the 

 other side of the Continent Mr. Tom Carter writes me : — " Wliite-belhed 

 Sea Eagles plentiful. Had my eye on two nests which the bii-ds were 

 repairing in May, but they either left the nests in consequence of sheep 

 feecUng around, or the natives got the eggs." Another season, on the 

 5th October, Mr. Carter observed two nests on the Lower Murchison 

 containing incubated eggs. On one occasion, Mr. Carter saw a Sea Eagle 

 carrying something long and trailing, which the bird dropped. It proved 

 to be a sea-snake, over five feet long, as tliick as one's wrist, and was 

 still alive. 



I am indebted to Mr. Robert Walpole, Woodside, Gippsland, for the 

 fine pair of Sea Eagles' eggs that now grace my cabinet. He took them 

 on the 19th August, 1895, on St. Margaret's Island, Shallow Inlet. The 

 nest was built at the height of about tliirty feet from the ground in a 

 white gum-tree. Ml'. Walpole enclosed with the eggs portions of the 

 lining of the gTeat nest, wliich were branchlets of banksias and eucalypts, 

 evidently plucked when gi-een by the bird. 



Mr. S. W. Jackson and his brother Frank robbed a Sea Eagle's nest 

 in the Lower Clarence River district, 14th August, 1898, which contained 

 the unusual complement of thi-ee eggs, two almost invariably being the 

 clutch. The nest was at the height of about one hundred feet in a tall 

 eucalypt, and was reached by the aid of an ingeniously made " rope " 

 ladder. (See illustration.) The nest measm-ed 6 feet 7 inches across 

 by a height of 4 feet 10 inches. 



Although essentially a coastal bird, the Sea Eagle has been known 

 to breed far inland in localities favoiu'able to the bird's habit. 

 Mr. Hany Barnard has taken the eggs one hundred and fifty iniles from 

 the sea-board. There are other instances of nests seen inland, 



notably on the Lower Edward River, and at Lake Moira, Riverina, New 

 South Wales, and in the Mallee, Victoria. McKinlaj-, the explorer, in 

 1862, noted the birds inland on the Upper Burdekin, North Queensland. 



On Rat Island, Abrolhos Group, West Australia, I observed what 

 I beheve was a recently deserted aerie of the Sea Eagle. Scattered round 

 about were spiny tails of lizards (Egernia) dried wings of Sooty Terns, 

 and Allied Petrels, thus showing what the old birds wore in the habit 

 of feeding their young upon. 



