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sticks and twigs, and with only a slight depression towards the 
interior, which is lined with fine twigs and green leaves, occa- 
sionally intermingled with rushes and straw. 
The nest is usually placed in a broad fork, near the very 
top of the tree, on branches that seem scarcely strong enough 
to support the huge mass, and is sometimes occupied by the 
same pair for many successive seasons. 
I do not think that this species ever takes possession of other 
birds’ nests. It either builds a new one for itself, or repairs 
one formerly belonging to it, even though this may in the 
interim have been usurped by Vultur Calvus or Ketupa Ceylon- 
ensis, both much addicted to annexing the poor Sea Hagle’s 
laboriously constructed nest. I say laboriously constructed, 
because I once watched a young pair constantly occupied for a 
full month, building a new nest, which they were still at work 
finishing off when I left. Nothing can seem rougher or more 
rugged than their nest when finished, and yet out of every 
four sticks and branches that they brought, they rejected and 
threw down at least three. Both birds brought materials, and 
side by side, the pair would work away, throwing down almost 
as many sticks as they had brought; then apparently they 
would quarrel over the matter, there would be a great 
squealing, and one would fly away and sit sulky on some cliff 
point near at hand ; after a time the one left on the nest would 
go off in quest of materials. Immediately, the other would 
drop softly on to the nest and be very busy (though what they. 
did except lift a stick and put it down in the same place it was 
impossible, even with a good glass, to make out) till the absent 
bird returned, not unfrequently with a fish instead of a stick. 
It is a curious fact, but I observed it repeatedly, that if the 
female, which is much the largest, brought the fish to the nest, 
the male set to work on it at once, without so much as, By your 
leave; while if the male brought it, the female used to eye it, 
sidle gradually up, and only take slow and modest mouthfuls. 
When, however, the female begins to sit, the male will bring her 
fish or fowl, and go off for other food for himself, not attempt- 
ing to share it with her: and when not on the nest, neither 
seems to presume to interfere with the other’s captures without 
permission (vide infra). 
The usual number of eggs laid by this species is three, but I 
have myself twice found four, and it is not at all uncommon to 
meet with only two eggs, fully incubated, or two young ones, 
in a nest. 
One curious point about these birds is, that unlike most 
Eagles, they do not always desert a plundered nest. I have 
