THROUGH WILD EUROPE 53 



ready to devour either snake, lizard, or rabbit. A 

 Kite we shot was packed full of pieces of a freshly- 

 swallowed Eyed Lizard, while a Booted Eagle, in the 

 uniform dark brown plumage, had evidently dined 

 last on a rabbit. There are two distinct phases of 

 plumage in this Eagle, which may perhaps account for 

 the confusion which formerly prevailed, viz. a light 

 form with white breast, and a dark form ; and, as in 

 most raptorial birds, there is considerable variation 

 in size. It is quite the smallest of the Eagles, being 

 hardly larger than the Buzzard, and its eggs are, if 

 anything, rather smaller than the Buzzard's. Two 

 eggs are usually laid ; but in one nest — again in a 

 large silver poplar — we found three young birds. 



In another nest quite low down in a half-buried, 

 spreading pine-tree at the edge of a sand-dune, were 

 two eggs and the hind quarters of a rabbit. While 

 I was engaged in photographing this nest, and was 

 in the act of lashing the camera legs to the bough, 

 the female Eagle dashed in and sat on the same 

 bough, almost within reach of my hand, then, realiz- 

 ing my presence, she flew off with a scream. The 

 tree was very heavily foliaged, and in consequence 

 it was very dark, and it is possible that she had not 

 seen me, her attention being taken up with the 

 others below me on the ground. 



I tried here the automatic electric camera carefully 

 hidden with cistus bushes on the top of a sand-dune, 



