72 THE WHITE-TAILED SEA EAGLE. 



They had ultimately to bind its body and wings with a leather 

 strap, tightly buckled (as is done on the stage with its human 

 counterpart, Rob Roy), then placed on its back and literally 

 squeezed to death — its convulsions actually lifting up the knees 

 of the heavy man whose whole force was used in crushing it 

 down before its heart was broken. It is a common way of 

 killing small birds for stuffing by squeezing the heart, but I 

 never knew of a powerful eagle being killed in this way. Before 

 being stuffed it was publicly exhibited in the Town Hall as a 

 great rarity — at sixpence each, and being a very fine specimen, 

 many went to see it, so the bird-stuffer made a good profit out 

 of it. It was bought for the College Museum, where it now is. 



The sea eagle generally makes its nest in the high cliffs facing 

 the sea, where it lives upon fish, young sea-birds, rabbits, hares, 

 sickly lambs, and fawns, and carrion of every kind — his range 

 of food, living and dead, being between that of the golden 

 eagle and the grossest garbage of the vulture. This being the 

 case he lives well, as scavengers are generally not very nice 

 with their food if they get plenty of it. But although a carrion- 

 feeder, it is not less acute in eyesight than the other ; for it 

 detects its prey, living or dead, at a great distance. It is often 

 seen soaring at a vast height above a dead cod or conger eel or 

 other fish lying on the beach, but as often sweeps on at a lower 

 elevation. It is almost as omnivorous as the rook, which feeds 

 on grain and grubs, potatoes and crabs, and whatever it can get. 



As already said of the golden eagle, those who associate the 

 eyrie of the erne or sea eagle with cloud-capped mountain brows, 

 inaccessible precipices, and yawning fissures in the rocks, may 

 be disappointed to know that they often select quite accessible 

 places for their nest, sometimes choosing a rock or islet in the 

 middle of a loch, where it makes its nest on the ground or on a 

 tree, which need not be either large or high. Mr Wolley got 

 two nests, of different years, in trees on separate islands in one 

 loch, each only about four feet from the ground ; nor do they 

 always calculate the depth of water, for he knew one where a man 

 could wade. He also knew of two placed on large Scotch firs, 

 one by the side of a loch, the other miles away from any sheet 

 of water. And he knew another on an alder tree, where a hooded 

 crow had eggs on the higher branches of the same tree, and 

 wild ducks were sitting on eggs in the deep moss and heather 

 below, within twenty yards of it — strange companionship ! — 

 and yet all in harmony with Nature. But, as a rule, the sea 

 eagle prefers cliffs by the sea-shore, or rocks not very far from 



