Notes from Cape Colony. 81 



XL — Notes from Cape Colony. 

 By Lionel E. Taylor, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Haliaetus vocifer. — A freshly killed specimen of this 

 species with the head eaten off, probably by a shark, was washed 

 up on the beach at Muizenburg on the 1 1th April, 11)06. 



When at Smitswinkers Bay near Cape Point on the 14tli 

 July, 1906, I saw an adult male flying along the mountain 

 close to the sea. 



This fine Eagle has not been previously recorded from 

 the Cape Peninsula or west of Bredasdorp, as far as I am 

 aware; but it is common along the coast east of George, and 

 at Knysna, where it breeds, I have seen three and four flying 

 about together. 



Aquila yerreauxi. — Several pairs of this Eagle are to be 

 found between Table Momuntain and Cape Point and on the 

 Drakenstein Mountains eastward to the Swellendam District, 

 where I saw a specimen which had been killed while eating 

 a lamb and was informed that it had killed several other 

 lambs before being shot. 



On the 1st July, 1906, I heard that a pair of these birds 

 had been seen at Cape Point, and on the 14th July I went 

 out there in the hopes of finding their nest. In this I was 

 not disappointed, as I found the birds carrying material for 

 the nest to a ledge of rock 50 feet below the top of the 

 rocky precipice and 600 feet above the sea. I was able to 

 watch the birds all the day and noticed that the material 

 which they were carrying to their nest consisted entirely of 

 green branches of the Rhenoster Bosch. I have consulted 

 many books in which the nest? of Eagles are described, but 

 can find no mention of green material being used for nest- 

 building, except in the case of the nest of A'^uila walilheryi, 

 described by my brother Mr. C. H. Taylor in this Journal 

 (vol. iii. p. 29), where he mentions the nest as being thickly 

 lined with bunches of green leaves. With the large amount 

 uf dry material available at Cape Point it is curious that 

 the binls should have made use of o-reoii brandus of a 



