on the Birds of Denmark. 389 
at the first nest, which was built on a good-sized beech tree in 
adense wood. Having obtained permission, as a great favour, 
to shoot one bird, I crept up to the nest and saw the pair 
together, the female sitting and the male standing by her side. 
They allowed me to come within twenty yards before going 
off, when I easily bagged the male, hoping that the hen would 
soon obtain another mate. After sailing round a few times 
above the nest, the female disappeared and was seen no more. 
The nest was about thirty-five feet from the ground, a large 
and heavy mass of sticks four feet in diameter, and lined with 
tufts of green moss, so as to form a shallow depression about 
two feet across. The eggs, which are large and white, were 
four in number, and had been incubated for about a week. 
Another nest was in a tree about 200 yards off, and is 
sometimes used by the same pair of birds, which appear to 
return to the same spots for many successive years. This 
season, however, it was tenanted by Buzzards, which we did 
not disturb. 
The other two nests which I visited in this forest were very 
similar in size and structure, one of them being an old nest 
of the White-tailed Eagle about thirty feet from the ground, in 
a small beech tree overlooking a wide marshy valley in the 
forest,and containing three eggs. The other was not more than 
eighteen feet from the ground, in a large stunted beech, situ- 
ated in a dense forest on a low ridge between two small peat- 
bogs. In all cases the birds allowed me to come close before 
flying off, and after sailing round several times disappeared ; 
and though I waited for some time at one of the nests, the 
bird did not return or show herself again. 
In the mornings and in fine weather the Black Stork has 
the same habit of sailing round and round high in the air as 
the White Stork, but I never saw them feeding anywhere 
near their nests. I believe that they go a considerable dis- 
tance in search of food. They arrive from the south in April, 
lay about the last week in that month, and leave the country 
with their young in early autumn. 
Not far from the first Black Stork’s nest was an eyrie of 
Haliaetus albicilla on a very large beech tree, which the 
