208 Al,iUILIN«. 



Dr. A. Clienery, writing me from Port Au^;usta, South Australia, on the nth June, 1905, 

 remarks: — "To-day I went to the Flinders Range, tweUe miles from liere. We have had 

 good rains, and tliere is green herbage about in profusion, but no birds building yet except one 

 Wedge-tailed Kagle (Aqitila aitdax ). The nest was built in a Pine tree on the side of the range, 

 twenty-five feet from the ground. One egg and a recently killed black rabbit also reposed in the 

 nest. In my experience this luigle is always an early layer, but not ()uite so early as this. I 

 saw the young in August, 1904." 



Mr. Tom Carter writes as fi.illows from Broome Hill, South-western Australia: — "The 

 Wedge-tailed Eagle (Unhrtm andax} was abundant in the Gascoyne River, Western Australia, 

 in 1886, and was very destructive to lambs. I have seen their nests built on the tops of fiat 

 bushes, about ten feet from the ground, in the coast country where there are no trees. Other 

 nests visited were from twenty to thirty feet from the ground, in White Gums. From one nest 

 I three times disturbed a bird sitting as if on eggs, but although I climbed up on each occasion 

 the nest was empty. At Point Cloates, North-western Australia, eggs were laid very regularly 

 about the end of May. One is the usual numlier, but occasionally two are laid. One nest was 

 built on a ledge about twelve feet from the top of a deep gorge, in the North-west Cape Ranges. 

 Coming to the edge of the clifl" above the nest on 22nd May, igoo, the old bird Hew off, and I 

 gave it both barrels of my gun, apparently without effect, and took the egg. On 28th May, 1900, 

 the same thing occurred, and I again took an egg from the nest, a large freshly killed domestic 

 cat, run wild, was on the edge of the nest. On 4th June, igoo, the same nest contained a third 

 egg. A short time after this another nest was built about a mile further on, in the same range, 

 presumably by the same pair of birds, and from this nest I also took an egg. This liagle is 

 fairly common in the south-west corner of Western Australia, where it builds in the \'ast forests 

 of Jarrah, etc. At Broome Hill, where the timber is lighter and open, these birds visit the 

 lambing flocks in numbers, and cause great destruction. There were two old nests in my 

 paddocks, where I was told eggs were laid about 1904. One nest was fifty feet from the ground, 

 in a tall Yate-tree ; the otiier nest, about forty feet, in a dead White Gum. One day in October, 

 igoS, while mustering in a paddock with my man, we found a three-parts grown kangaroo 

 (boomer) ' bailed up ' in a corner of the fence by two Wedge-tailed Eagles. Our passing by 

 doubtless saved the kangaroo's life, as it was quite exhausted. The same day two ewes were 

 left, as they did not travel very well, and returning for them in the evening I found Eagles had 

 killed both, so I put strychnine in the carcasses, and next morning found six Eagles dead close 

 to the skeletons of the sheep, the bones having been picked clean of meat. Two Eagles that 

 had died on their backs had their breasts eaten by their comrades." 



Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, 

 forwarded the following notes : — " I saw Ai/iilln itud(i\ llying over Sisters Hills in May, June and 

 August, 1886. When observed from below as it flies, one sees this bird's wedge-shaped tail 

 very plainly. In March, 1887, I saw a pair of Black-cheeked Falcons that are resident about 

 the cliffs at Circular Head, mobbing a Wedge-tailed Eagle that had been frequenting the Bluff 

 for some weeks, making dashes at it as Crows and other birds do to the Raptores in general. In 

 March, 1890, I rode up to one sitting on a small tree, on a plain west of Duck River, which 

 allowed me to approach within fifteen yards, and would perhaps not have flown away at all if 

 I had not stopped my horse." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson, while resident at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, 

 sent me the following notes : — " Aqiiila nndax is widely distributed over Tasmania and the islands 

 of Bass Straits. I have observed this bird along the coast country from the South-west Cape 

 northwards to the Pieman River mouth, on the west coast. I have found it about the Lake 

 country in the interior, and the Midlands, which localities seem to be its chief habitat." 



