Mr. S. Bligli on Kiener's Hawk-eagle, 299 



XXXIII. — Note on Kiener^s Haivk-eagle. By Samuel Blioii. 

 (Communicated by John Henry Gurney.) 



[As Lophotnorchis kieneri is one of the rarer of the 

 eastern Hawk-eagles^ the following particulars extracted 

 from a letter received from my friend Mr. Samuel Bligh are, 

 I think, worthy of record. — J. H. G.] 



" I SPENT the month of February at Kotraalie (Ceylon) 

 with my friend Mr. Master, on whose estate, just twelve 

 years ago, I shot an adult male oi. Lophotriorchis kieneri, the 

 first ever recorded as having been obtained in Ceylon. 



" For two or three months previous to my visit, Mr. Master 

 had often written to me that he was much troubled by an 

 Eagle which, two or three times a week, would play havoc 

 amongst his Pigeons, rarely missing a week in coming and 

 in securing a Pigeon. 



" Mr. Master had shot at the Eagle, but had failed to do 

 more than frighten it. 



^' The day after I arrived it put in an appearance, and 

 the poor Pigeons, a flock of sixty or seventy, seemed quite 

 bewildered with the Eagle circling above them and waiting 

 on them, till they were fairly terrified, when it would make 

 a heavy awkward stoop and clutch the nearest Pigeon ; it 

 did not come within fair gun-shot, but I fired to save the 

 Pigeon, and distinctly saw that the Eagle was hit. 



" Three days later it was there again ; I saw that it was 

 gaining elevation for a stoop, waited, and the Pigeons keeping 

 low this time, I dropped it as it was nearing the flock, and it 

 fell almost at my feet quite dead. It proved to be an adult 

 female of L. kieneri ; very like the male which I shot twelve 

 years before, but larger, weighing 2^ Ibs.^ I found that it 

 was the same bird that I had shot at two days before, as 

 fresh wounds were plain upon the legs, and on skinning it I 

 found that a thigh-bone had also been hurt long ago, but 

 was well healed ; its crop contained the fresh remains of a 

 Palumbus torringtonice." 



* [The male previously obtained by Mr. Bligli weighed If lb. — 

 J. II. G.J 



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