448 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



inhabited nest on a weak oak sapling in the middle of a 

 young cover. The whole forest was, in consequence of the 

 miserable sandy soil, composed of very poor trees. This, the 

 only Sea-Eagle's nest in that wood, was skilfully built to lean 

 against the stem and the thickest branch of the tree, and from 

 the nature of the above circumstances was so small in pro- 

 portion to the size of its owner, that one could observe all the 

 movements of the already well-grown eaglet in the swaying 

 fabric. 



Excepting two of them, all the other Sea-Eagles' nests that 

 we saw were peopled with whole colonies of Tree-Sparrows 

 impudent birds that hopped about without caring either for 

 the young or the old eagles, and a perfectly unruffled friendship 

 seemed to exist between the mighty lords of the nests and the 

 little parasites. Nor did these eagles appear to trouble them- 

 selves in the least about other smallish birds, for I often saw 

 Turtle-Doves, little Hawks, Thrushes, &c. quietly sitting on 

 the nesting-trees, and close under one of them was breeding 

 a Wild Duck. 



During my sojourn in those districts in the end of April 

 and the beginning of May, all the Sea-Eagles' nests contained 

 young birds in various states of development. In some they 

 were very large and already feathered, in others very small 

 and still in down ; but even birds of the same nest differed 

 greatly in size. Three taken from one eyrie were so unlike 

 each other that the largest was at least twice as big as the 

 smallest. We had four nests taken, only one of which con- 

 tained three young birds, the others two. One eaglet we 

 found squatting on the ground, under the nest, but its good 

 condition showed us that even there it had been faithfully fed 

 by its parents. 



I managed to collect a good many notes on the behaviour 

 of the Sea-Eagles when breeding, but they were confined to 

 the period when the nests already contained young birds, for 



