WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 219 



set in, and food is more plentiful on the warmer side 

 of the borders. Seebohm writes : " Eagles of all kinds 

 are thorough gypsies in their mode of life — here one 

 day, fifty miles away the next, a flight of a hundred 

 miles being nothing but a morning stroll for an Eagle. 

 This circumstance, coupled with the fact that their 

 haunts are so vast and difficult of access, explains why 

 it is that the birds are so rarely seen, and why the 

 impression is so deeply rooted that the birds are well 

 nigh extinct in Great Britain." 



The White-tailed Eagle, though most frequently 

 found on the coasts, is by no means confined to them, 

 and often wanders far inland to some quiet loch or 

 piece of water where high rocks or cliffs abound. It 

 feeds near the sea, chiefly upon dead fish cast up 

 on the shore, but it is not averse to rabbits, dead 

 sheep, hares, ducks, fowls and other animals. "The 

 many tales told of this bird," says Seebohm, " as well 

 as of the Golden Eagle, which are represented as 

 carrying ofl* children, are no doubt myths ; for as 

 Saxby in his Birds of Shetland very justly remarks, 

 every Eagle's eyrie in the islands is pointed out as the 

 one made famous for all time by its owners carrying 

 ofl^ that world-renowned baby in times so long ago as 

 to be clouded in deep obscurity." 



The White-tailed Eagle pairs for life, and the same 

 eyrie is resorted to year by year ; the nest is a gigantic 

 structure, five or six feet in diameter, built of sticks 

 and lined with bits of heather and seaweed. It is 

 annually repaired and enlarged. It is usually placed 

 high on some inaccessible ledge of rock, but has also 

 been found in a tree or even on the ground. 



The eggs are about three inches long, of a round 

 shape, two in number, and pure white. They re- 



