30 Mr. C. H. Taylor on Birch 



placed in a fork o£ the tree al)ont 45 feet from tlie ground ; 

 it was thickly lined with bunches of green leaves taken from 

 the same tree. Both birds take their share in incubating the 

 single egg, the one not so occupied remaining within call on 

 a neighbouring tree. The male was shot as he flew from the 

 nest. When the sitting bird is disturbed, after circling round 

 the tree for some considerable time, sometimes as long as 

 half an hour, uttering a very harsh scream every now and 

 again, it mounts in wide circles until almost lost to view; 

 from this elevation, often at a great distance from the nest, 

 the bird glides with outstretched wings until it is immediately 

 over the nest, when after poising for an instant it stoops 

 perpendicularly; so rapid is its descent that the eye can 

 hardly follow it, apparently it checks itself without effort 

 only on reaching the nest. 



The single egg taken measures 63 mm. x 46 mm. It is 

 of oval shape ; ground-colour dirty white; the egg is blotched 

 sparsely with reddish-brown splashes unevenly spread and of 

 varying size. The texture of the shell is, for an Eagle's egg, 

 surprisingly smooth. The egg was rather dirty and more or 

 less coloured with a reddish dyeing of what I take to be 

 blood, particularly on one side, where it looks exactly as if 

 some one had upset some red ink over it and then tried to 

 rub it out. 



523. LoPHOAETUS OCCIPITALIS. (Crested Hawk Eagle.) 

 (a) unsexed juv. 25.7.06. Indhlovudwalilie. Iris light 

 yellow ; feet whitish ; claws black. 



ih) c?. 



Rare. I first saw this handsome Eagle seated on a rock 

 overlooking a stream ; although I took at least half an hour 

 to crawl up to it through the grass, it never moved. 



The young bird had evidently been caught in a trap some 

 time before I shot it, as the middle toes of both feet show 

 some malformation, the claw of the right being completely 

 reversed, whilst that of the left is double or split and about 

 one-eighth of the proper length. 



