BIRD LIFE IN THE DRAKENSBERG 253 



Bird Life in the D rale n she r</ Mountains. 



THE BLACK EAGLE (Aquila verreauxi). 



By R. E. Symoxs. 



The Black Eagle is the noblest and one of the most 

 l)owerful birds in the Drakensberg, although consider- 

 ably^ smaller than the Lammergeyer, It is distinctly a 

 mountain loving bird, and is fairly common all through 

 the Drakensberg Mountains both in Natal and Basuto- 

 land, but its stronghold on the Natal side is undoubtedly 

 the head of the Little Tugela near Champagne Castle. 

 The grandeur and beauty of the scenery here is beyond 

 description, and hardly to be surpassed either in or out 

 of Natal. Standing on the Little Tugela-Bushman's 

 Riyer watershed, one has a magniiicent and awe-inspir- 

 ing yiew of the Drakensberg Mountains, where the 

 numerous tributaries of the Little Tugela have their 

 source. Pinnacle after pinnacle, buttress after buttress, 

 tower hundreds of feet into the air, with here and there 

 some huge cleft in the mountain, and dark mysterious 

 looking gorge. Down the face of one of the highest 

 krantzes in the mountain, what apjjears to be a silver 

 streak is seen, but in reality it is the main tributary of 

 the Little Tugela, which rises at the very summit of tlie 

 Drakensberg almost in Basutoland, and comes tumbling 

 down into Natal, over a sheer drop of 800 feet. Turning 

 from the mountains one sees far below the Little Tugela 

 winding its way through the Little Berg, where there 

 are more terrific krantzes. It is here that the Black 

 eagle may be seen almost any day, and where he appears 

 at his best, a noble bird in a grand and beautiful home. 

 Who can fail to feel a thrill of admiration, on seeing him 



