90 BRITISH BIRDS. 



clusively confined to young or immature birds. From tiie Tyne, north- 

 wards up the east coast oi' Scotland, immature specimens of this Eagle 

 are usually met with in autumn ; and at several of the bold headlandsj 

 notably at St. Abbs Head in Berwickshire, a solitary bird will make its 

 appearance and remain a week or so until the supply of food is exhausted 

 or the incessant persecution to which it is subject sends it oflf to more 

 suitable quarters. Again, in the south-eastern counties of England this 

 bird is often seen in the autumn months in immature plumage. In these 

 districts they frequent rabbit-warrens, or take up their station on one of 

 the large sheets of water, where they wage an incessant warfare on the 

 waterfowl congregated there for the winter. Eagles of all kinds are 

 thorough gipsies in their mode of life — here one day, fifty miles away the 

 next, a flight of a hundred miles being nothing but a morning stroll for 

 an Eagle. This circumstance, coupled with tlie fact that their haunts are 

 so vast and difficult of access, explains Avhy it is that the birds are so 

 rarely seen, and why the impression is so deeply rooted that the birds are 

 well nigh extinct in Great Britain. 



In Pomerania, especially between Stettin and the Baltic, the Sea-Eagle is a 

 common resident, breeding in the forests. It builds an enormous nest, some- 

 times six to eight feet in diameter, near the top of a pine or on the horizon- 

 tal branch of an oak or beech, preferring forests near inland seas and large 

 lakes. Instances have been known of its breeding in the same " Horst " for 

 twenty years in succession. Every year some addition is made to the nest, 

 until it becomes five or six feet high. Occasionally a pair of Sea-Eagles have 

 two " Horsts," which are used alternately. They are shy birds, and leave the 

 nest at the least alarm, but do not easily forsake their old home. If the eggs 

 are taken early in the season, they will frequently lay again in the same nest. 

 They make a very flat nest, and generally line it at the top with moss. The 

 male and female are said to sit alternately, and the female is said to be 

 shyer than the male at the nest. Two is the usual number of eggs ; but 

 frequently only one is found; in rare cases as many as three are laid. 

 Eggs may be taken from the first week in March to the middle of April. 

 The Sea-Eagle is more gregarious than other Eagles, and they are fre- 

 quently seen to hunt together. They are by no means innocent birds, and 

 often make considerable havoc in the carp-ponds. Though they do not 

 refuse carrion, as many as six ducks have been found in a nest at one time, 

 and they often take hares or even very young roebuck. In winter the 

 number of Sea-Eagles in Pomerania is increased by migrants from the north. 

 Dixon writes : — " Within my own observation the favourite food of this 

 Eagle is the stranded fish and shore-garbage on the beach of its maritime 

 haunts ; while further inland a dead carcase or a weakly bird or animal are 

 shared with the Raven and the Crows. I once remember to have seen a 

 bird of this species alight on a drowned sheep lying on the shore of Loch 



