THE GRAY SEA EAGLE. 



273 



pauioii ill an incredibly short spurn of time a habit peculiar to most if not 

 all rapacious birds. For many seasons in succession this bird returns to its 

 old eyrie, merely making 1 a few necessary alterations each season, adding to 

 the structure, or making good what damage it may have sustained during 

 the storms of the previous winter. 



"The site is varied according to locality, and may be on rocks, in tree-. 

 or on the ground. In the inland districts the birds usually select a rocky 

 islet in the middle of a loch, where they either build their bulky nest on 

 some ledge of the sloping ground, in a tree, or on the rocks, as occasion 

 offers. Sometimes a site is chosen at some distance from the water in small 

 open woods, but such instances are rare; inland rocks, too, are often selected 

 in similar places to those which the Golden Eagle frequents broken cliffs, 

 often quite easy of access from above or below. But the most characteristic 

 eyries of this bird in our islands are on the coast, built high up in the almost 

 inaccessible rocks, hundreds of feet above an ever turbid sea, and in situations 

 to which none but the most intrepid climbers dare venture. Some nests in 

 these situations are indeed quite inaccessible, and the birds have remained in 

 undisturbed possession from time immemorial. * * * 



" Several instances are recorded of the Sea Eagle breeding upon the 

 ground. Herr Tancre describes a nest which he found upon the island of 

 Iliddensoe, on the southern shores of the Baltic, near Stralsund, on the naked 

 meadow among the reeds. The nest was carefully made of sticks and was 

 about 2 feet high. 



"The food of the Sea Eagle consists of fish, sea fowl, and occasion- 

 ally carrion. Dixon states: 'Within my own observation the favorite food of 

 this Eagle is the stranded fish and shore garbage on the- beach of its maritime 

 haunts; while farther inland a dead carcass or a weakly bird or animal arc- 

 shared with the Ravens and the Crows.' " 



According to Seebohm, the eggs of the Gray Sea Eagle vary from 69.8 to 

 83.8 millimetres in length, and from 53.3 to 60.9 millimetres in breadth 

 They are pure white in color and ovate to rounded ovate in shape. The 

 shell is coarse, granulated, and usually considerably nest stained, giving it a 

 yellowish appearance. 



Three eggs from southern Greenland, in the U. S. National Museum 

 collection, measure, respectively, 80 by 59, 76 by 57.5, and 75.5 by 61 milli- 

 metres. 



They an; scarcely distinguishable from the eggs of the Bald Eagle 

 (Haliaetus leucocephalus), excepting that they are somewhat larger. None are 

 figured. 



26957 Bull. 1- 



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