92 GOLDEN-TAILED AND WHITETAILED-EAGLE 



and the claws, having been driven deeply into the victim's body, 

 cannot be removed, with the result that the wretched bird is 

 drowned. Naumann cites a case when one of these eagles seized 

 upon a sleeping seal, which at once plunged into the water, where 

 both perished. This bird is also occasionally taken in nets set just 

 below the surface of the water for seals. At times, it seems, this 

 handsome bird will alight on the sea to rest. At any rate Naumann 

 cites an instance when one was seen to alight thereon, and, spreading 

 its pinions, to remain afloat some minutes. 



But besides fish, this bird feeds, and largely, on water-fowl of 

 various kinds gulls, ducks, water-hens, and so on, and in times of 

 scarcity on the young deer, and sheep, as well as on hares, rabbits, 

 moles and mice. As with the golden-eagle, large animals are often 

 hunted by two or three birds acting in concert. 



Carrion seems to be more frequently eaten than in the case of 

 the golden-eagle, and Mr. Reginald Lodge, 1 on more than one occa- 

 sion, when hunting in Albania, found the sea-eagle and the vulture 

 busy at the same carcass. 



Of its courting habits a glimpse is afforded us by Seebohm, who 

 speaks of the insuperable difficulty of conveying any idea in words 

 of the remarkable skill displayed on the wing by two rival males 

 when buffeting one another in mid-air, during the period when the 

 struggle for a mate is going on. For though these birds, like the 

 golden-eagle, and, indeed, most birds of prey, seem to pair for life, 

 this conjugal union is always liable to be broken by a more masterful, 

 more powerful, mateless male. During such aerial battles each male 

 strives his best to gain the sky of its opponent, and their acrobatic 

 efforts are accompanied by screaming and yelping cries which 

 harmonise with the wild solitudes which form the scenes of such 

 warfare. 



All that we seem certainly to know of the domestic economy of 

 these birds, from the mating period onwards, is that the male bears 



1 R. B. Lodge, Bird Hunting through Wild Europe. 



