GRAY SEA EAGLE. 19 



occasionally one or three in number, and are white, normally 

 unspotted. The same aery is occupied for many successive seasons, 

 sometimes as many as twenty or more, and receives additions and 

 repairs each year as necessity requires. Both male and female take 

 part in the incubation, which lasts about a month. 



FOOD. 



Fish forms one of the chief articles of diet, especially in summer, 

 and is obtained in part by fishing much after the manner of the 

 osprey. Once in a while a fish too large to be managed is attacked, 

 and the eagle, if unable to extricate its talons, is drawn under the 

 water and drowned. The dead fishes and other offal thrown up by 

 the waves along the shore are, however, quite as much to its taste as 

 freshly caught fish, and the gulls that gather about such food are often 

 driven away by the sea eagle until it has appropriated all it desires. 

 One eagle was found to have gorged itself from the carcass of a 

 stranded whale. 



Birds also, principally waterfowl and game birds, are an important 

 element of diet. The various kinds of water birds along the coast 

 furnish a ready supply of food, and from vantage point of rock or 

 cliff the eagle swoops down on its victims. This bill of fare includes 

 plovers, curlews, cranes, grebes, wild geese, coots, ducks of various 

 species, and indeed almost all kinds of water birds; also bustards are 

 sometimes taken. Meves states that on one occasion in western 

 Russia, at a nest containing two young eagles respectively about five 

 and eight days old, he found remains of the following birds: Two 

 eiders (Somateria sp.), one red-breasted merganser (Merganser 

 serrator), one goosander (Merganser merganser) , and two long-tailed 

 ducks (Harelda hy emails). At certain times, particularly in winter, 

 and in certain places, especially in the interior, the sea eagle destroys 

 many grouse, pheasants, and other upland game birds, and occa- 

 sionally, when other food becomes scarce, also crows and small song 

 birds of various kinds. Dr. G. Rorig found remains of an owl in the 

 stomach of one individual. It is known also to carry off poultry 

 even from the vicinity of farmhouses. 



Though of powerful build the gray sea eagle is not so bold and 

 active as many of its relatives, and apparently seldom attacks large 

 animals. Mr. A. von Homeyer states that on one occasion he saw 

 it kill a fox, and Dr. G. Rorig found remains of a fox in one of the 

 eagle stomachs he examined. In winter, however, when in sore need 

 of food, it has been known to attack a deer, and it sometimes kills 

 young seals. It is fond of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and hares 

 \Lepus timidus), and particularly in winter feeds upon them to a 

 considerable extent. On the steppes of southern Russia it often 

 pounces upon ground squirrels (Citellus citellus), and in the same 



