WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE. 
in more senses than one. These birds destroy great numbers of sea-snakes : 
hundreds of their skeletons picked bare by the birds may be seen on any of 
the islands. Once only have I had the pleasure of seeing a snake being carried 
off by his enemy, the Eagle. It occurred at Slade Rock, a small islet lying 
a few miles to the north of this port. The sudden appearance of our party 
round a jutting rock startled the bird, and he dropped his prey at our feet. 
It proved to be a monster about 6 feet long, and weighing six or seven pounds. 
On May 29th one fresh egg was noted in a nest on Cullen Island, and on the 
same day a nest on Victor Island was found ready for eggs. On 16th June 
two eggs were found in a nest on Irvine Island. During the last week of July 
pairs of Sea-Eagles were noticed on many ol the islands of the Percus Group, 
but the nesting-season was evidently over, many immature birds being in 
evidence.” 
Mr. J. D. Maclaine, in the same volume of the Emu (p. 191), from the 
opposite end of Australia, gave the following note : “ Clarke Island (Bass 
Strait), 15th September, 1907. Have noticed very few of the White-bellied 
Sea-Eagles {Haliaetus leucogaster) this season : it is indeed a mm avis. Many 
places here where they formerly nested are now deserted, owing probably 
to their having died from the effects of the poison laid for them upon the 
sheep -stations of the north-east coast of Tasmania, about 18 miles away. I 
am told that they kill a great number of lambs, and consequently get poisoned 
for so doing, but personally I very much doubt their lamb-killing propensities, 
as I have never known them to interfere with our flock, and when examining 
the nests with fledgelings have noted that the bones in and about the nest 
are either fish or snake bones. I think they must confound them with the 
Wedge-tailed Esigle {Uroaetus audax). We never shoot or destroy the Sea- 
Eagles — not only for the above reasons, but also on account of their rarity — 
anyhow in these parts.” 
The notes given by Messrs. Campbell and White regarding the birds of 
the Capricorn Islands {Emu, Vol. X., p. 195, 1910) do not exactly agree With 
the above note by Captain White, so are here reproduced : “ Each island 
visited seemed to be the abode of a pair of Sea-Eagles. Eyries, with young, 
were observed and photographed on Mast-Head and Erskine Islands. In 
the former the nest was in a large Pisonia tree, which was about 60 feet high. 
The Eagles, when hovering over an island, particularly in the mornings, made 
Goose-like cackling notes. They did not seem to prey on the birds of the 
locality, but on sea-snakes and fish. Two nests were discovered on North- 
west Island, both in Pisonia trees at either end of the island — one of great 
girth and few limbs. The nest was a huge collection of boughs and sticks, 
■ and contained fully-fledged young which in colour much resemble the Wedge- 
VOL. V. 
137 
