GOLDEN EAGLE 205 



splendid starry train. He is built on different lines, that indicate 

 power and rapine ; but his appearance in repose is not less attractive 

 than theirs, and, in a sense, not less beautiful. Tennyson, in a few 

 well-known lines, has described it better, perhaps, than any other 

 writer the majestic bird and the nature it inhabits, and is in harmony 

 with its sublimity and desolation : 



He grasps the crag with hooked hands, 

 Close to the sun in lonely lands ; 

 Ringed by the azure world he stands. 



The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls ; 

 He watches from his mountain walls, 

 And like a thunderbolt he falls. 



White-tailed Eagle. 



Haliaetus albicilla. 



Upper parts brown, head and neck lightest ; under parts 

 chocolate -brown ; tail white ; bill, cere, and feet yellowish white ; 

 claws black. In the young the tail is brown. Length of the male, 

 two feet four inches ; of the female, two feet ten inches. 



Immature specimens of the white-tailed, or sea-eagle, or erne, 

 are from time to time obtained in England during the autumn and 

 winter months. They are, probably, in nearly all cases migrants 

 from northern Europe on their w r ay south. The British race the 

 sea-eagles that bred formerly in many localities on the coasts of 

 Scotland and Ireland, and in the northern islands is now all but 

 extinct. The bird no longer breeds anywhere on the mainland, 

 and but one or two pairs are known to inhabit the islands. 



The sea-eagle has a more varied dietary than the species last 

 described, and he hunts for food both on sea and land. In his 

 habits he is by turns osprey, falcon, and raven. Like the osprey, 

 he drops from a considerable height on to a fish seen near the sur- 

 face, and, striking his talons into it, bears it away to land. But he 

 preys more on puffins, guillemots, and other sea-fowl, than on fish. 

 Like the golden eagle, he destroys mountain hares, grouse, and 

 ptarmigan, and is regarded by the shepherd as the worst enemy to 

 the flock. But the shepherd has his revenge, for the erne is^a great 

 lover of carrion, and may be easily poisoned. 



