It is found in various parts of Europe and America. It is said to lay only two eggs during the whole year, and frequently produces only one young bird; it is, however, widely dispersed, and was met with at Botany Island by Captain Cook. It lives chiefly on fish: its usual haunts are by the sea-shore; it also frequents the borders of large lakes and rivers; and is said to see so distinctly in the dark, as to be able to pursue and catch its prey during the night. The story of the eagle, brought to the ground after a severe conflict with a cat, which it had seized and taken up into the air with its talons, is very remarkable. Mr. Barlow, who was an eyewitness of the fact, made a drawing of it, which he afterwards engraved.
In their native districts these noble birds are generally seen near the sea-shore, or upon the rocky precipices on the margin of the inland lakes, from whence they pounce upon the fish while swimming near the surface of the water. Aquatic birds also become their frequent prey. They generally choose the most inaccessible cliffs for building their nests, laying one and sometimes two eggs, entirely white, and nearly the size of that of a goose; one of these, in Selby’s possession, was laid by a bird after it had been in confinement twenty years.
Montagu, speaking of the cinereous or sea-eagle, says, “The specimen from which this description is taken, was killed by Sir Robert Littleton’s game-keeper in Shropshire. It was accompanied by a letter from Sir Robert, the purport of which was, that his servant being out shooting, saw two large birds feeding on the carcase of a sheep, which appeared recently killed; that having nothing but small snipe-shot with him, he turned back, intending to go home for larger; that the eagles then followed him, and frequently came so near, that he concluded they meant either to attack him or his dogs. Suddenly losing sight of one, he judged it was very near him behind, and being somewhat alarmed, turned and shot at it in a hurry; after which the bird flew some hundred yards, and dropped. On his approach it was vomiting blood; and he killed it after a struggle of half an hour.” He adds, that it was the larger of the two.
John Maxwell, Esq., of Ardbraccan, in Ireland, favoured us with two young birds of this species alive, taken the preceding year on a mountainous precipice, or craggy cliff, called Slieve Donard, impending over the sea, in the county of Down. That gentleman informed us that two men, covered with sackcloth and armed, were lowered by ropes to the aërie which, with considerable difficulty, they robbed of two young, leaving only one addled egg behind. The old eagles being so furious as to create serious alarm, neither the nest nor colour of the egg were noticed. Some fragments of flesh were in the nest.
The eaglets were covered with a glossy, dark, murry-coloured down. A basket was attached to the ropes that conveyed the men down: into this the young birds were put; but from the violence and amazing strength of the parent birds, they were with difficulty carried off. These birds were not twelve months old when we received them. On their first moulting they became much darker, particularly about the breast and thighs, the latter almost wholly of a dusky black. At two years old, the base of the bill became yellow; in the third year there was not any material change. At this time one of them killed and devoured the other, probably from some neglect in feeding them, as before that event they lived together in perfect harmony.
From the astonishing height these and some other birds fly, we are led to believe that they are capable of living in a much lighter atmosphere than any other animals. From the top of some of the highest mountains in Scotland, we have seen several of them soaring together at so great a distance as to appear scarce larger than a swallow. It is said to prey indiscriminately on land animals, fish, and aquatic birds, and probably every animal of inferior strength suffers from its rapacity.
Two of this species contending in the air over Loch Lomond, in the Scottish Highlands, became so firmly grappled to each other by their talons, that they were precipitated into the water. The uppermost regained the power of its wings, but the other was taken alive by a Highlander, who witnessed the scene, and who waited till the wind had wafted him near the shore. This curious account was received from an officer who bought the eagle.