154 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
but I think the Eagles we sometimes see about 
Geelong all come from the south. A high wind 
seems to start them on their travels, and they will, 
under its influence, go great distances from their 
usual base. 
It is not sufficiently established that Eagles do very 
much harm among flocks at ordinary times ; in 
droughts and with weak sheep they probably do, 
I have heard of Eagles which had a nest of young 
in a paddock where two thousand ewes with lambs 
at foot were depasturing, yet the birds fed themselves 
and their young upon rabbits alone. 
It is said that Eagles will amuse themselves, when 
well fed, by taking bits of stick up into the air, letting 
them drop and catching them again before they 
reach the ground, and go on at this for an hour or 
more ; also that they drive hares and rabbits from 
cover by dropping sticks and the like from above, 
until the animal rushes out. I have not seen either 
of these things, but there is very good authority for 
their truth, which, if proved, illustrates the very 
great degree of intelligence possessed by this our 
noblest bird of prey. 
WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE 
Cuncuma leucogaster 
This is a magnificent sea-haunting Eagle with white 
head and under-parts and dark grey wings and back, 
a most conspicuous bird, which regretfully I record 
