BIRDS OF PREY. 



27 



other with beak and claws, and rolling upon the ground until their feathers flew in all directions and 

 blood flowed. During these encounters the female sat apart, and rewarded the victor by her caresses, 

 with the utmost indifference as to which of the two should obtain her for his mate. After a fortnight 

 spent in constant battles, the strongest bird remained for the time in possession of the field, but no 

 sooner did the pair leave their eyrie, after rearing their young family, than the disappointed rival at 

 once renewed his attacks with so much ferocity as to kill his adversary, after a short but severe 

 struggle. 



The eyrie of the Sea Eagle is a large structure, from five to seven feet in diameter, and from one 

 and a half to two feet high, formed externally of branches as thick as a man's arm, and lined with 

 twigs ; the interior is rendered warm and soft with down plucked from the mother's breast. The 

 brood consists of from two to four eggs, about three inches long ; the shell is thick, rough, and 

 coarsely grained, sometimes white without any markings, and occasionally spotted with red or brown. 

 What period of time elapses before the nestlings escape from the egg is not yet known, but it has 

 been ascertained that both parents assist hi the work of incubation. The young do not leave the nest 

 until from ten to thirteen weeks after their birth, and even then return to it at night ; it is only as 

 autumn approaches that they finally withdraw from parental care. The Sea Eagle is extremely shy, 

 and therefore captured with great difficulty. In Norway small stone huts are erected for this purpose, 

 outside which a piece of flesh, fastened to a string, is laid upon the ground ; the other end of the 

 string is held by a man within the hut, who no sooner perceives that his bait is taken, than he draws 

 up the piece of meat, which the bird will not relinquish, and by this means usually succeeds in 

 bringing the huge creature to close quarters, and killing it or making it prisoner. When caged the 

 Sea Eagle soon becomes tame, and learns to distinguish its friends amid a crowd of strangers ; 

 indeed, so thoroughly does it accustom itself to its new life, that one with which we were familiar, 

 having escaped from confinement, used to return every day to visit its companions, and was at last 

 re-captured while perched upon their cage. These Eagles have been killed in various counties in 

 England, and are not uncommon in the rocky parts of the western and northern counties of Ireland ; 

 they are said to be common in Scotland, and breed in the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shetland. 

 Dr. Heysham, in his catalogue of Cumberland animals, says that they breed occasionally in the 

 neighbourhood of Keswick and Ullswater, 



THE AFRICAN SCREAMING SEA EAGLE. 



The African Screaming Sea Eagle {Haliactos vocifcr) is pure white upon the head, throat, 

 nape, and upper part of the breast and tail ; the mantle and quills are blueish black ; the edges of the 

 wings, and underside of the latter, are of a rich brownish red ; the eye.rings, cere, and feet, light 

 yellow ; and the beak blueish black. In the young birds the plumage on the upper part of the head 

 is blackish brown, mingled with white ; the nape and back of the head, white, intermixed with 

 brownish grey. The upper portion of the shoulders, and lower part of the back, are white, the 

 feathers tipped with brownish-black spots ; the front of the throat and upper part of the breast are 

 white, streaked with brown ; the rest of the lower portions of the body being entirely white ; the 

 quills are brown, and white at the root ; the tail-feathers white, spotted and tipped with brown. The 

 plumage is moulted many times before the bird appears in its full beauty. This species is about 

 twenty-eight inches long ; the wing measures nineteen and the tail six inches. 



The Screaming Sea Eagle was first seen by Le Vaillant in South Africa, afterwards by other 

 travellers in Western Africa, and by ourselves in the interior of that continent, where it appeared to 

 live exclusively upon the banks of the Blue and White Nile. Le Vaillant, on the contrary, found it 

 on the sea-coast, and only exceptionally near large rivers. It is, however, in the primitive forests of 



