398 Mr, H. Saunders on the Ornithology 



Of course I was not many hours in Gibraltar before I made 

 my way to the Signal-station, where the sergeant showed me a 

 nest of Bonelli^s Eagle, from which the young had been hatched 

 five or six days prior to my visit. Strange to say, about two 

 days after the young were hatched they disappeared from the 

 nest ; and as no one could possibly have taken them without the 

 cognizance of the signalmen, it is probable that the old birds 

 had removed them, annoyed by too much inspection. During 

 a week I visited the station every day, having discovered that 

 two more pairs of this Eagle were then making their neats — one 

 in the very crag on which the battery is perched, the other in a 

 projecting buttress of rock to the south. An hour after day- 

 break generally found me at the station, where for several hours 

 I watched these birds, now dropping down towards Catalan Bay 

 to tear up pieces of scrub for their nests, and now diversifying 

 their labours by a pounce upon some unfortunate rabbit, which 

 was immediately carried off to some neighbouring crag and de- 

 voured. The pair whose nest was in full view of the station, 

 used to make an old nest their dining-room. I never saw them 

 take anything but rabbits ; and it is probably owing to the ex- 

 treme abundance of these animals that so many pairs of rapto- 

 rial birds are found within so short a distance of one another. 

 Such being their quarry, I was of course deprived of the plea- 

 sure of seeing them swoop like a Falcon, as described by Lord 

 Lilford (Ibis, 1861, pp. 4, 5) ; but they certainly used to skim 

 over, and pick up a rabbit, with a graceful gliding flight, unri- 

 valled even by the Goshawk, with which this Eagle seems to 

 have strong affinities. 



One morning, when unusually early at my post (I had left 

 home before sunrise), I noticed a pair wheeling round and per- 

 forming antics in the air similar to those of Ravens ; this lasted 

 about half an hour, after which they settled to the work of 

 nest-building; then came a light breakfast on rabbits, after 

 which some half-dozen journeys were made for sticks; then came 

 another rabbit, after which they retired — for a digestive nap, I 

 suppose. But Bonelli's Eagle was not the only attraction of this 

 noble look-out ; mingled with Common Swifts, House-Mar- 

 tins, and Swallows were several hundreds of Alpine Swifts 



