548 



4 



poor Sea-Eagle's laboriously constructed nest. I say laboriously constructed, because I once 

 watched a young pair constantly occupied for a month building a new nest, which they were 

 still at work finishing off when I left. Nothing can seem rougher or more rugged than their 

 nest when finished ; and yet out of every four sticks and branches that they brought they rejected 

 and threw down at least three. Both birds brought materials ; and side by side the pair would 

 work away, throwing down almost as many sticks as they brought. Then, apparently, they would 

 quarrel over the matter ; there would be great squealing, and one would fly away and sit sulky 

 on some cliff-point near at hand. After a time the one left on the nest would go off in quest of 

 materials ; immediately the other would drop softly on to the nest and be very busy (though 

 what it did, except lift a stick and put it down in the same place, it was impossible, even with 

 a good glass, to make out) till the absent bird returned, not unfrequently with a fish instead of a 

 stick. It is a curious fact, but I observed it repeatedly, that if the female, which is much the 

 largest, brought the fish to the nest, the male set to work on it at once, without so much as, ' By 

 your leave ;' while if the male brought it, the female used to eye it, sidle gradually up, and only 

 take slow and modest mouthfuls. When, however, the female begins to sit, the male will bring 

 her fish or fowl, and go off for other food for himself, not attempting to share it with her ; and 

 when not on the nest, neither seems to presume to interfere with the other's captures without 

 permission. 



" The usual number of eggs laid by this species is three ; but I have myself twice found four, 

 and it is not at all uncommon to meet with two fully incubated or two young ones in a nest. 



" One curious point about these birds is, that, unlike most Eagles, they do not always desert 

 a plundered nest. I have twice taken single eggs out of the nests, and ten or twelve days later, 

 on reexamining the same nests, in consequence of observing the same birds still hanging about 

 the place, found that a couple more eggs had been laid since my last visit." 



It has been stated by several authors that the present species never offers any resistance 

 should its nest be robbed ; and Mr. Hume also says that his experience tends to confirm this ; 

 but Captain Hutton, who says that when the nests he has taken contained eggs the parent 

 bird did not attempt any resistance, adds as follows, viz. : — " On one occasion, however, I met 

 with a very different reception, when my servant was attacked with an unexpected ferocity, from 

 which nothing but my gun could have saved him. The circumstance occurred in January 1832, 

 when on my way up country. The nest was placed near the summit of a tree growing on one of 

 the Colgong rocks, in the middle of the Ganges, and contained two half-fledged young ones. 



" The old birds offered a most determined resistance ; and without the aid of firearms we 

 should decidedly have been defeated, as they dashed fiercely and fearlessly at the man in the 

 tree, who prayed hard to be allowed to descend, and was only kept at his post by promise of 

 reward and fear of the cudgel. At first we had to contend with the female only ; but after one 

 or two rapid stoops and dashes at the robber's head, which he avoided by bobbing under the 

 nest, finding she could make no impression, she suddenly uttered a shrill cry, which was 

 responded to in the distance ; and in an instant after, her mate was seen swiftly gliding to her 

 aid from the opposite bank of the river. The two then charged together towards the nest with 

 the rage and fierceness of despair, and so terrified the man in the tree, hampered as he was with 

 the young ones, that had I not fired at and wounded the Eagles as they advanced, they would 



