156 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
the information I could obtain) came there in 1780. An 
adventurous countryman, who had frequently descended 
the rock for the eggs of its other winged tenants, having 
watched the eagle from the nest, paid a visit to it also. 
He found this fabrication to be of considerable size, and 
formed of sticks and rushes laid alternately ; containing 
one solitary young bird. This he took, but not knowing 
how to manage it, the eaglet soon died." 
Yarrell says it probably belonged to this species. 
In the Solent, Hawker several times came across it. 
On February loth, 1827, he writes in his "Diary": — 
" Reade paddled me up to within 1 30 yards of a huge 
sea eagle. I let fly, beat him down, and then up he 
got, and went away out of sight." 
On December 28th, 1829, he notes from Keyhaven : 
" Saw one eagle." 
On January 9th, 1837 — "Gave up my whole tide for 
shooting in the pursuit of a splendid eagle that appeared 
off Hurst. I had all but got him when a lubber rushed 
out with a musket and scared him away. He, however, 
returned in a few hours and gave me a second chance 
by sitting on Hurst beach within range of any great 
gun while afloat ; but the baker drove by and put him 
up, when he flew several miles westward .... I found 
he had been seen three days in succession within a few 
hundred yards of the same place." 
On January nth he had another distant view of the 
eagle hovering off the Isle of Wight. 
On the 15th, "the eagle came again to the beach, 
as.if he knew it was Sunday." 
On January 32nd, 1.841, ' 'he saw " a little battle 
between two ravens and a huge eagle, who dropped his 
grey plover that he held in the fight, and on which bird I 
