14 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



west, including Tasmania and all the small islands in Bass's 

 Straits. It has neither the boldness nor the courage of the 

 Wedge-tailed Eagle, Aquila midax, whose quarry is frequently 

 the Kangaroo and the Bustard ; and although, at first sight, 

 its appearance would warrant the supposition that it pursues 

 the same means for obtaining living prey as the true Pandion, 

 by the act of submersion, yet I can affirm that this is not the 

 case, and that it never plunges beneath the surface of the 

 water, but depends almost entirely for its subsistence upon 

 the dead Cetacea, fish, etc., that may be thrown up by the 

 sea and left on the shore by the receding waves ; to which, 

 in all probability, are added living mollusks and other lower 

 marine animals : its peculiar province is consequently the sea- 

 shore ; and it especially delights to take up its abode on the 

 borders of small bays and inlets of the sea, and rivers as high 

 as they are influenced by the tide ; nevertheless it is to be 

 met with, though more rarely, on the borders of lakes and 

 inland streams, but never in the forests or sterile plains of 

 the interior. As it is almost invariably seen in pairs, it 

 would appear to be permanently mated ; each pair inhabiting 

 a particular bay or inlet, to the exclusion of others of the 

 same species. Unless disturbed or harassed, the Wliite- 

 beUied Sea-eagle does not shun the abode of man, but 

 becomes fearless and familiar. Among the numerous places 

 in which I observed it in 1839 was the Cove of Sydney, 

 where one or two were daily seen performing their aerial 

 gyrations above the shipping and over the tops of the 

 houses : if I mistake not, they were the same pair of birds 

 that found a safe retreat in Elizabeth Bay, skirting the 

 property of Alexander Macleay, Esq., where they might be 

 frequently seen perched on the bare limb of a tree by the 

 water's edge, forming an interesting and ornamental addition 

 to the scene. In Tasmania it is especially abundant in 

 D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and along the banks of the Der- 

 went and the Tamar ; and there was scarcely one of the little 



