2 THE BIEDS OF SUSSEX. 



eastward, but have not the dates. In a letter from Mr. R. 

 N. Dennis, dated February 22nd, 1855, he informs me that 

 an Eagle was seen bv one of the men of the Coastguard, near 



'fe 



Seaford. The bird had established himself on a high spit of 

 beach, which became an island at high tide, to which he 

 carried his prey in oi'der to dine in security, and from 

 whence he kept a vigilant look-out on all around. He was 

 quite unapproachable, but the Preventive men could watch 

 all his proceedings with the glass with the greatest ease, as 

 he was in full view of them from their station-house. 



On the 26th of December, 1864, as I was in a vehicle 



about a mile and a half eastward of Henfield, my attention 



was attracted to a large brown mass, near the top of an oak 



tree. As I could not satisfy myself that it was a bird at all, 



I asked the driver what he thought of it. He, not hearing 



what I said, immediately stopped the carriage, by which 



means the brown mass, being only about a hundred yards off, 



Avas startled, and, on its rising up, we could distinctly see 



that it was an Eagle, and that the tail was entirely white. 



It then glided away towards a large wood, and we last saw it 



flying eastward ; but I was informed that it was seen again 



the next day, not far from the spot where we first observed 



it. This bird was, of course, adult ; and as I learn, on 



the best authority, that in no other instance, of late years, 



has an adult Sea-Eagle been reported in England in a wild 



state, this circumstance rather leads to the suggestion that 



the one we saw might have escaped from confinement. In 



Mr. Knox's O. R. (pp. 40, 43) several occurrences of the 



Sea-Eagle are mentioned, viz. : — the one before referred to 



at the Dolplii*EL. Hotel at Shoreham; another shot in 1841 at 



Rottiugdean, where it had been observed for about a month ; 



a third, killed at Windmill Hill, in the parish of Wartling, 



in January 1844; as Avell as a fourth on Peveusey Level 



about 1845. Beside these, one is mentioned as having been 



