HAWKS, FALCONS AND EAGLES. 25 



which has its eyrie on some inaccessible mountain 

 cliff, from which it descends to carry off lambs 

 and occasionally babies. This is the Eagle of the 

 poets : 



He clasps the crag with hooked hands, 

 Close to the Sun in lonely lands, 

 Ringed with the azure world he stands. 

 The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls, 

 He watches from his mountain walls 

 And like a thunderbolt he falls. 



I need scarcely say that the naturalist classes a 

 good many birds as Eagles which are not quite so 

 grand. But even the least noble of them requires 

 more than Bombay can afford. The handsome 

 Crested Hawk-eagle, so common in the surrounding 

 districts, may visit us sometimes, but I have not seen 

 it. There is one, however, which we may fairly 

 claim, and to my thinking it is one of the very 

 noblest of the race. I mean the Sea Eagle (Haliaetus 

 leucogaster). It is exceedingly common on this west 

 coast, and I know of at least one eyrie not ten miles 

 from Bombay, so the sea on both sides of our island 

 is well within its range. It needs little description 

 to make it recognisable. Though smaller than a 

 vulture, it is larger than any other bird of prey that 

 comes our way. Viewed from below the whole bird 

 is snowy-white, with the exception of a broad black 

 border on the wings and the tail. The back and 

 upper parts of the wings are of a fine slatey-grey 

 colour. But further even than you can make out 

 its colours you may know the Sea Eagle by its flight. 

 When it sails, as it does most majestically, it does 

 not carry its wings horizontally, like a kite or vulture, 



