450 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



a certain distance from every nest, a particular tree with dead 

 upper branches, on which the eagles rest, and which is exclu- 

 sively used for that purpose. If, however, the Sea-Eagle has 

 detected any one near its abode, there is an instant end to its 

 carelessness, and it circles high and low over the place, 

 uttering the incessant cries of warning by which it seeks to 

 summon up its mate, that they may examine the neighbour- 

 hood in company, and not be absent for an instant from the 

 spot where danger threatens. Every movement of the dis- 

 covered enemy is responded to by renewed screams, nor do 

 they for a moment relax their precautions until the danger 

 has entirely vanished. Should another Sea-Eagle come into 

 their territory, they at once hunt it out, but in a playful 

 manner, for among the eagles on the ^Danube such serious 

 encounters do not take place as certainly occur elsewhere, as 

 the pairs breed too close together, and the extent of ground 

 which each couple regard as their own is very small. I twice 

 found these birds nesting hardly six hundred paces from each 

 other. 



Four of the Sea-Eagles observed by us brought fish to their 

 young, some of which were still alive. This is not remarkable 

 in the auen, where the nests are often situated close to the 

 water; but in the Fruska-Gora, where we also found two of their 

 eyries, we thought it interesting to see live fish in the claws of 

 the eagles. These birds must have traversed at least three or 

 four miles in a straight line from the Danube, over the bare 

 outlying hills, before reaching the woods of the Fruska-Gora. 

 Yet there one of my companions saw an eagle carrying two 

 fish at the same time, one of which it threw into the nest, and 

 then settled upon a branch, holding the other in its claws. 

 There it was killed, and about half an hour afterwards the 

 second eagle came up, perched on a branch, escaped uninjured 

 from a shot fired at it, and let fall a fish, which was picked up 

 by the jagers. The observer then left the nest, but returning 

 an hour later, found that the fish which had been lying on the 



