66 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



sea, in the Wynaad, Coorg, and all along the Western Ghats, on 

 the Neilo-herries, on the Eastern Ghats, and, rarely in Central 

 India; also throughout the Himalayas. Out of India it is found in 

 the hilly districts of Burraah and Malayana. 



It is a bird of easy, graceful, and elegant flight, always seen soar- 

 ing and circling about at no great height, with hardly any flapping 

 of its ample wings. I never saw it perch except for the purpose 

 of feeding, or on being wounded; and the Lepchas of Darjeeling, 

 when I saw this Eagle, said ' this bird n«ver sits down.' It lives 

 almost exclusively, I believe, by robbing birds' nests, devouring 

 both the eggs and the young ones. I dare say if it saw a young 

 or sickly bird it might seize it, but it has neither the ability nor 

 dash to enable it to seize a strong pheasant on the wing, or even, 

 I believe, a partridge ; and Hodgson, I fancy, must have trusted to a 

 native, partially ignorant of its habits, when he says — "that it preys 

 on the pheasants of the regions it frequents as well as their eggs." 

 I have examined several kinds shot by myself, and invariably found 

 that eggs and nestling birds alone had been its food. In three 

 cases I found the eggs of the hill quail ( Coturnix erythrorhyncka), 

 of Malacocercus Malabaricus, and of some doves ( Turtur), with 

 nestlings, and the remains of some eggs which I did not know. 

 I have seen it also after circling several times over a small tree, 

 aliizht on it, and carry ofl" the contents of a dove's nest. In India, 

 doves, and perhaps some other birds, breed at all times in the year ; 

 and it may perhaps obtain eggs or nestlings at all seasons, by 

 shifting its quarters and varying the elevations : if not, it probably 

 may eat reptiles, but of this I cannot speak from observation. It 

 hunts over the forests slowly, regularly quartering the ground, and 

 examining every spot. The natives say that it breeds on trees, which 

 is indeed most likely. Hodgson remarks that its body is entirely 

 free from offensive odour and vermin. Capt. Irby, in his paper on 

 the ' Birds observed in Oude and Kumaon,' states that he obtained 

 this bird in Kumaon and saw it up to 10,000 feet of elevation. 

 He states the irides to be yellow, but in this he is certainly in error. 

 Doctor Adams, in his list of the birds of Cashmere, P. Z. S. 

 1859, says that he saw on the mountains, *' at an elevation of about 

 ■17,000 feet a fine Eagle about the size of the golden Eagle ; the 



