76 THE WHITE-TAILED SEA EAGLE. 



when reposing, sits with drooping wings and ruffled feathers, 

 more like those with whom it was at first placed by Linnseus. 

 It is not only a useful scavenger on the sea shore, but a 

 prowling plunderer on the sea coast, stealthily seizing everything 

 in the shape of animal or fish — alive or dead — and all kinds of 

 offal near its abode, which its great strength and powerful talons 

 enable it so well to do. But his cowardly, half-vulturine 

 character is well-known to the other sea-birds which frequent 

 the same haunts. He will, with equal greed, snatch a powerless 

 young gulliemot, skua, or black-backed gull, an inoffensive 

 rabbit, dying fawn or lamb, but sheer clumsily away from the 

 parent birds, or even from the screaming little tern — for, as a 

 rule, a thief or a sneak is generally a coward, and always a 

 selfish one ; nor will it scruple to steal from the true fishing 

 osprey, and even patiently wait to feed on the remnants of a fish 

 left by the other, as it has been seen to do. It is no favourite 

 with other birds — from the tern up to the powerful skua gull — 

 all have a dash at it when seen near their nests. A pair of these 

 gulls, with their powerful wings and strong hooked beak, are 

 more than a match for one eagle when they meet in deadly 

 warfare. This fact in Nature is taken advantage of. A 

 proprietor on the little island of Foula, in the north of Shetland, 

 encouraged the skuas to breed there, for the express purpose of 

 keeping the robber erne away, as it destroys sickly lambs and 

 sheep, and has been seen to dash at the heads of weak cattle and 

 deer ; but he is not a daring robber. During summer and 

 autumn large flocks of tame geese pasture amongst the most 

 retired hills unprotected — quite close to its haunts, yet the hiss 

 of the gander is sufficient to drive him away. But during the 

 breeding season, as the erne pays his marauding visits along 

 the coast, and sweeps past the cottages early in the morning, 

 the poultry are sure to suffer. It has been known to exist five 

 weeks without sustenance, and still possess undiminished vigour. 

 A keeper inadvertently allowed one to live several weeks 

 without food, when, through sheer hunger, it began to tear the 

 flesh from its own wings, which fact, " Know-all" Shakespeare, 

 in Henry VI., seems to allude to when speaking of Queen 

 Margaret — 



" Reveng'd may she be on that hateful duke, 

 Whose haughty spirit, wing'd with desire, 

 Will cost my crown, and, like an empty eagle, 

 Tire * on the flesh of me, and of my son ! " 



* From the French tirer, to fasten talons on anything. 



