FALCONID.^ 



SPIZAETUS 



303 



are generally to be found, Mr. Ayres found a nest on June 10 in 

 the Orange Eiver Colony ; it was about five feet in diameter, built 

 of sticks and lined with fresh green twigs and placed in an old 

 gnarled tree on the side of a hill ; it contained only one somewhat 

 incubated egg ; this was chalky white, blotched and spotted with 

 reddish brown and rather rounded in shape, measuring 3'3 x 2-55. 

 A nest was also found by Symonds on September 20, which 

 contained one young bird in down. It was placed in a mimosa tree 

 overhanging the river and was easily accessible. After watching 

 the nest for some weeks in the hope of obtaining the parent birds 

 without success, the young one was taken away and kept for some 

 time in captivity. It became fairly tame and allowed one to enter 

 its cage and scratch its head. Sir Harry Johnson also kept a 

 Martial Hawk-eagle for some time ; he relates, as proving the great 

 strength of the bird, how, on one occasion when playing with the 

 bird, a cat approached ; in a second the eagle had darted out a 

 foot and had driven its claws through the cat's skull killing it 

 instantaneously. 



Genus VII. SPIZAETUS. 



Type. 



Spizaetus, Vicill. Analyse, p. 24 (1816) S. mauduyti. 



Bill somewhat short and deep, the culmen evenly curved 

 throughout its length, edge of the upper mandible slightly 

 festooned ; nostrils oblique ovals entirely free from feathers or 



Fig. 97. — Wing of Spizaf'tus coronatns. x 1. 



bristles ; a small occipital crest of short but broad feathers ; wings 

 short and rounded, only reaching to just beyond the upper tail- 

 coverts ; difference between the length of the primaries and 

 secondaries hardly noticeable (in South African species) ; tail 



