AN ORNITHOLOGIST ON THE DANUBE. 549 



though he wished to try the experiment of living abroad. During 

 spring, therefore, one sees in that district only adult, or what comes 

 to the same thing, full-grown birds capable of reproduction, while 

 in autumn and winter there are, in addition, the young ones which 

 left the nest only a few months before. Then also many wanderers 

 who have not settled down come to enliven the forest-shores of the 

 Danube. As long as the river is not covered with ice, they have 

 no difficulty in finding food; for they hunt in the water not less, 

 perhaps rather more skilfully than on land. They circle over the 

 water until they spy a fish, then throw themselves down upon it 

 like a flash of lightning, dive after it, sometimes disappearing com- 

 pletely beneath the waves, but working their way quickly to the 

 surface again by aid of their powerful wings, carry off their victim, 

 whose scaly armour has been penetrated by their irresistible talons, 

 and devour it at their leisure. As their depredations are not so 

 severely condemned in Hungary as with us, and as they are treated 

 generally with undeserved forbearance, they regularly frequent the 

 neighbourhood of the fishermen's huts, and sit among the trees close 

 by until the fisherman throws them stale fish or any refuse which 

 they can eat. Like the fishermen, the Hungarian, Servian, and Slav 

 peasants help to provide them with food, for, instead of burying 

 animals which have died, they let them lie exposed in the fields, and 

 leave it to the eagles and the vultures, or to dogs and wolves, to 

 remove the carrion. If a covering of ice protects his usual prey, and 

 no carrion is available, the sea-eagle need not yet starve; for, like 

 the nobler and more courageous golden eagle, he hunts all game 

 which he has a chance of overpowering. He attacks the fox as well 

 as the hare, the hedgehog and the rat, the diver and the wild goose, 

 steals from the mother seal her sucking young, and may even carry 

 his blind rapacity so far as to strike his powerful talons into the 

 back of a dolphin or a sturgeon, by w T hom he is carried down into 

 the sea and drowned before he can free his claws. Under some 

 circumstances he will even attack human beings. Thus he need 

 hardly ever suffer want; and as he is not systematically hunted, he 

 leads quite an enviable life. 



Until near the breeding- time, the sea- eagle lives at peace with 



