202 Mi'o C. Farman on some of the Birds of Prey 



of the Pravidy valley : it was more neatly put together than 

 most of the Eagles' nests, and was warmly and softly lined with 

 the blossoms of the ash-tree; it contained one young bird just 

 hatched, and two eggs already cracked by the young birds within. 

 On the edge of the nest were the two fore legs of a leveret. 

 Directly I descended from the tree, one of the parent birds re- 

 turned to the nest, and I observed her mate sitting on an old 

 dead tree a couple of hundred yards off ; this bird was intently 

 watching a flock of some twenty or thirty Magpies which were 

 busily engaged picking the bones of an old carcass that the Vul- 

 tures had demolished. As I rode past, the Magpies took to flight, 

 and the Eagle, leaving his resting-place, instantly started ofi" in 

 pursuit of them j on coming up to them he singled one out, and, 

 after following it through a few intricate but futile attempts to 

 escape, rose slightly above his prey and with one stroke felled it 

 to the ground, and, following it as it fell, reached the ground 

 almost at the same moment. 



H/VLiAETUs ALBiciLLA (Llun.). White-tailed Eagle. 



Common on the coast of the Black Sea, as also on the shores 

 of the Devna lakes, but most numerous during the early 

 spring. 



Haliaetus LEUCORYPHA ? (Pallas) . Pallas's Sea-Eagle. 



At various times during my two years' residence in this coun- 

 try I have noticed an Eagle that I take to be the above-named ; 

 but, unfortunately, I was never able to preserve a specimen by 

 which to identify it clearly ; nevertheless I had several oppor- 

 tunities of scrutinizing it pretty closely. It diflfered altogether 

 from any other Eagle that frequents this country, the most ob- 

 vious distinction being a white head and neck, and a white tail 

 with a dark edging. In the spring of 1865 a pair of these birds 

 built their nests on a gigantic elm-tree growing on the banks of 

 a stream near Uvola, about thirty miles from the sea-coast, 

 where the Pravidy valley opens out into a broad plain, which at 

 this time of the year (April) is covered with water and pre- 

 sents the appearance of a small lake. For two successive days 

 I lay in wait for these birds, and tried in every conceivable way 

 to get within shot of them, but without success ; so ultimately. 



