558 



8 



Sea, and they found it breeding in February. Mr. C. Farman met with it in Bulgaria, where, 

 he says, it is common on the shores of the Devna Lake, being most numerous during the early 

 spring. Professor von Nordmann, writing respecting its occurrence in Southern Russia, says 

 that " its habits in the steppe country are so far modified that it is scarcely recognizable as the 

 same species ; for whereas in the north it is a true inhabitant of the sea-coast and river-banks, 

 and is seldom observed far from these, its haunts are here quite different. In the southern 

 steppes of Russia it frequents solely the interior, and very rarely approaches the water, but feeds 

 on the small steppe-birds and the various species of mammals, in the spring and summer pro- 

 bably exclusively on various sorts of mice. 



" It frequently hunts after Spalaoc pallasii and Spalax typhlus, which it seizes with great 

 adroitness, without seeing them, out of the mounds which they are busy raising; therefore 

 its claws are in the summer season generally found to be soiled with earth. In the dozen 

 specimens I have dissected I have never found a fish, but invariably the remains of mammals 

 and birds; and sometimes, though rarely, I have observed in them the remains of lizards. In 

 the steppes it perches on the posts placed to mark the versts, and on small mounds, whence 

 it pounces on the ' sousliks ' (Spermophilus citillus). In default of trees large enough to bear 

 its nest, it places it on the ground. In winter it approaches human habitations." Menetries 

 records it from the shores of the Caspian ; but Canon Tristram did not meet with it in 

 Palestine. It inhabits North-east Africa, where, according to Von Heuglin (Orn. N.O.-Afr. 

 p. 52), it is a resident in the lagoons of Lower Egypt, being most frequently met with at Lake 

 Menzaleh ; but he never met with it on the Nile itself, nor on the shores of the Red Sea. He 

 gives a most interesting account of its nidification in the reed-beds of Lake Menzaleh, too long 

 for insertion here. Mr. Howard Saunders sends me the following note on its nidification 

 there : — " It may interest you to know that the Hon. Murray G. Finch-Hatton found several 

 nests of this species upon the ground in the reedy marshes of Lake Menzaleh, and shot the old 

 birds from two of them. I have examined these specimens, which are very white about the 

 head, but not more so than many European examples. The nests were large structures, to 

 which it was necessary to wade knee-deep in mud and water, rendering it no easy matter to get 

 at them ; and the young were nearly able to fly in January." 



In North-west Africa it appears rare, as Loche writes that he very seldom met with it in 

 Algeria, and never saw an adult bird. It occurs in the Canaries ; and Mr. Godman writes (Ibis, 

 1871, p. 166) as follows: — "Webb and Berthelot do not seem to have observed this Eagle, 

 though Dr. Bolle says that he met with it in the Island of Lobos in May 1864 in some numbers. 

 He also mentions it as a coast species in Teneriffe. In the month of April I frequently watched 

 a pair of these birds three or four miles to the eastward of Orotava, near the coast." Mr. Godman 

 adds that he never met with it elsewhere amongst the islands, nor has it been recorded from 

 Madeira. 



To the eastward the Sea-Eagle is found as far as Japan and Kamtchatka. Eversmann 

 records it from Bokhara ; Mr. Blanford obtained a specimen at Gwadar, in Persia ; and Mr. A. O. 

 Hume obtained numerous specimens amongst other birds received from Sindh, and he procured 

 young birds at Etawah. Mr. Blyth states (Ibis, 1872, p. 87) that he never met with it in Lower 

 Bengal. 



