GRAY SEA EAGLE 317 



relates that in the Shetlands, while a nest was being built, the female 

 bird was shot and immediately afterward the male disappeared, 

 but returned in the course of a week with a new mate. The latter 

 was also killed, but after an absence of about 10 days the male 

 again returned with another female and succeeded in rearing a 

 brood. 



Little has been recorded of the actual courtship, though fights 

 between rival males have been witnessed early in spring. Robert 

 Gray (1861) mentions one case where no fewer than six birds were 

 seen soaring in a group together. Two of them, probably males, 

 attacked each other and fought viciously, the other four soaring 

 leisurely round them and uttering their yelping notes. The fight 

 continued till the two birds reached the ground, when one was 

 found to be so injured that it was unable to rise and was killed by a 

 shepherd who had been an interested spectator. Rasmus Miiller 

 (1906) also states that in Greenland he has occasionally seen fights 

 between two of these birds, which have been carried on in the air for 

 some time, but ended by their coming to the ground. 



Nesting. — The difference in nesting sites is extraordinary and 

 varies according to the locality. In Greenland the nest is always 

 on a ledge of rock not far from the water, generally in one of the 

 numerous fiords and within reach of a salmon river. Some nests 

 are placed in situations difficult of access, others are comparatively 

 easy to reach. The nest is an untidy heap of sticks and branches 

 picked up from the shore, together with grass and seaweed, as well 

 as bones and other remains of prey. In Iceland and northern Scan- 

 dinavia the sites are very similar, but some of the Norwegian nests 

 are to be found in the very middle of a huge colony of sea birds of 

 various species on the precipitous sides of some small island. In 

 countries like Denmark (formerly) and North Germany, the nests 

 are almost invariably in big trees such as pines and oaks. These 

 nests are built entirely by the birds themselves and are frequently 

 occupied year after year, so that in time they become very large. 

 In the marshes of the lower Danube, where the species is still quite 

 common, the nests are generally in trees, sometimes at great heights, 

 but also at times in quite small trees, though difficult to reach as 

 the nest overhangs all round and the loose materials give no hand- 

 hold. There are, how^ever, exceptions, and I have seen a nest on 

 an almost flat sandbank, only a foot or two above the water level. 

 In the Lake of Antioch also the nests are to be found among the 

 reedy shallows and formerly a similar site was occupied on Lake 

 Menzala in Lower Egypt. In Iraq the nest has been found on the 

 cliffs bordering the great rivers. 



In some cases a single pair may have two or even three alterna- 

 tive sites, which are occupied in turn. 



