26 HAWKS, FALfcONS AND EAGLES. 



but inclined upwards, so that the figure of the whole 

 bird is like a very flat V. The Sea Eagle lives 

 chiefly on sea serpents. They are forced to come to 

 the surface frequently to breathe and are more easily 

 caught than fishes. They are all venomous, but the 

 Eagle does not mind that. The fact is that a sea 

 snake is so utterly helpless out of water that, when 

 clutched by the middle and borne away through the 

 air, it can do nothing but dangle like a string. The 

 Sea Eagle makes an enormous nest of sticks in 

 a tree and uses it year after year, till all the ground 

 under it is thickly sown with the bones of snakes and 

 and fishes. On the mainland the tree selected is 

 generally a very high one, but on small, solitary 

 islands I have seen nests scarcely fifteen feet from 

 the ground. About November two eggs are laid, of 

 a greenish-white colour, and as the young ones grow 

 up there is great ado about satisfying their voracious 

 appetites. In a nest I visited one January, with only 

 a single young one, I found a fresh fish 9 or 10 inches 

 long and a half-eaten snake. For months after they 

 leave the nest the young follow their parents about, 

 crying, like the daughters of the horseleach, " Give, 

 give," and the loud and harsh kak, kak, kcik, from 

 which the bird gets its native name Kakan, may be 

 heard all day. 



Another water bird must come in here, though the 

 latest investigations into its inside seem to convict it 

 of being half an owl. I mean the Osprey, or Fish 

 Hawk (Pandion halicetus). It is not a resident with 

 us, but comes for the cold season, when it may be 

 seen all along the sea coast and on every large river. 

 The Osprey is an exceedingly handsome bird in the 



