RAPTORES. 15 



islets in Bass's Straits but was inhabited by a pair of these 

 birds, which, in these cases, subsisted in a great measure on 

 the Petrels and Penguins which resort there in great numbers 

 to breed and which are very easily captured. 



With regard to the nidification of the White-bellied 

 Sea-eagle, I could not fail to remark how readily the birds 

 accommodate themselves to the different circumstances in 

 which they are placed ; for while on the mainland they 

 invariably construct their large flat nest on a fork of the most 

 lofty trees, on the islands, where not a tree is to be found, it 

 is placed on the flat surface of a large stone, the materials of 

 which it is formed being twigs and branches of the Barilla, a 

 low shrub which is there plentiful. While traversing the 

 woods in Recherche Bay, I observed a nest of this species 

 near the top of a noble stringy-bark tree {Eucah/ptus), the 

 bole of which measured forty-one feet round, and was certainly 

 upwards of 200 feet high ; this had probably been the site of 

 a nest for many years, being secure even from the attacks of 

 the natives, expert as they were at climbing. On a small 

 island, of about forty acres in extent, opposite the settlement 

 of Flinders, I shot a fully fledged young bird, which was 

 perched upon the cone of a rock ; and I then, for the first time, 

 discovered my error in characterizing, in the ' Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society of London,' and in my * Synopsis,' the 

 bird in this state as a different species, under the name of 

 Haliaetus sphenunts, an error which I take this opportunity 

 to correct. The eggs are almost invariably two in number, 

 of a dull white, faintly stained with reddish brown, two inches 

 and nine lines long, by two inches and three lines broad. 



This Sea-Eagle may be frequently seen floating about 

 in the air above its hunting-ground, in circles, with the 

 tips of its motionless wings tiu-ned upwards; the great 

 breadth and roundness of the pinions, and the shortness of 

 the neck and tail, giving it no unapt resemblance to a large 

 butterfly. 



