320 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Enemies. — Although at times attacked and driven away from their 

 breeding places by the larger falcons, the sea eagle stands in no real 

 danger from them. In Rumania I have seen a Saker falcon {Faico 

 cherrug) dash off its nest and strike a sea eagle full on the back, 

 sending feathers flying, and in Scotland the peregrine {F. pere- 

 grinus) has been seen to stoop at it and drive it off. A fight has been 

 recorded from Greenland with the snowy owl. In the case of a nest 

 on the ground in the south a prowling fox might take small young, 

 and on one occasion we found young dead in the nest, apparently 

 killed by ants, but as a rule the only enemy of the sea eagle is man, 

 whose chief weapons are the gun and poison. On one estate in West 

 Ross alone, a single keeper shot 52 in 12 years, besides taking many 

 eggs and young. 



Fall. — The young soon disappear from the neighborhood of the 

 nest, presumably driven awaj'', and wander erratically southward. 

 Evidently the mortality must be heavy, and practically all the speci- 

 mens secured on migration are immature, the adults remaining 

 (except in the high northern regions) in the neighborhood of their 

 breeding place. Favorite haunts of these young birds are shallow 

 lakes and morasses in southeastern Europe, where there are great 

 assemblages of wildfowl, such as various species of wild ducks and 

 coots. 



The coots have their own special method of defense, by assembling 

 in close order on the surface and throwing up with their powerful 

 feet jets of water, which keep their assailants at a respectful distance. 



DISTRIBimON 



Breeding range. — The gray sea eagle breeds on the west coast of 

 Greenland from Cape Farewell to Disco Bay; on the east coast 

 it is a rare straggler. It has bred at least once at Cumberland 

 Sound on the west side of Davis Strait (Kumlien, 1879). Green- 

 land birds have been described as a large race (Schi0ler, 1931). 

 Haliaeetus a. cdhicilla breeds in Iceland; formerly in western Ire- 

 land, Scotland, and the Faeroes; Norway; Sweden (about 20 pairs) ; 

 Finland; Russia; Novaya Zemlya; Germany (chiefly Mecklenburg, 

 Brandenburg, Pommern, and East Prussia) ; formerly in Denmark; 

 Poland; the Baltic Republics; Corsica; Sardinia; Hungary; Yugo- 

 slavia; Albania; Rumania; Bulgaria; Greece; Asia Minor; formerly 

 in Egypt; Syria; Iraq; North Persia; Turkestan; and in Siberia 

 east to Mongolia. It is perhaps represented by a smaller race in 

 northeastern Asia (Manchuria, Anadyr, and Kamchatka), on the 

 Commander Islands, and in Japan. 



Fall Tnigration. — Juveniles from northern Europe drift southward 

 over Helgoland and the Baltic, occasionally reaching the east coast 



