URO.iiTUS. 



209 



Mr. Malcolm Harrison writes me from Hobart, Tasmania,; — "The favourite hunting 

 ground of tlie Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uiviriiis anddx) is no doubt the comparatively open sheep 

 country of the Midlands, where sotne years ago it was an every day sight to observe them 

 wheeling in wide circles at a great altitude. Their numbers have now been considerably 

 reduced, but they still breed at the foot of tfie Western Tiers, in the lofty liucalyptus trees 

 of that locality, and in a few other favoured spots. In these southern parts we see one occasionally 

 only, although a few places are known in which they still continue to nest. In my e.xperience 

 the local eggs are as a rule larger than those of the mainland which have come under my notice. 

 The principal breeding month here is September." 



For the purposes of breeding it adapts itself to its environment, but the liuge nest of sticks 

 lined with Eucalyptus leaves is generally from twenty to seventy feet or more from the ground. 

 Where not interfered with, as near the northern portion of the border line of Xew South Wales, 



-^1^ 







NKsr UK llli: \\ I'.lii.K-TAll.KD KAfJI.I-; <IN NULLAHOli I'],\INS, .SULTll AL.MH.VLIA. 



and the Nuilabor Plains in South .\ustralia, it is frequently built in a tree so small that it 

 will just carry the nest, and may be looked into by one standing on horse or camel back, as may 

 be seen in the above figure. The photograph from which it was reproduced was taken by Mr. 

 Chas. G. Gibson, on the ist October, lyoS, during the survey of the Transcontinental line from 

 Coolgardie, Western Australia, to the eastern boundary of that State. It was deserted by 

 the Eagles, but when examined by Mr. Gibson contained three half-Bedged Brown Hawks. 

 Again it may be built on a rocky eminence, or as pointed out by Mr. Austin, on the ground in 

 a wheat field. They vary, too, much in size, and usually a number of fallen sticks and remains 

 of mammals and birds are found underneath the tree. A medium sized nest in the Group 

 Collection, presented by Mr. A. W. Mullen, is an open and nearly flat structure, formed entirely 

 of thick sticks ; its average greatest width externally is. four feet six inches, and its depth two feet 

 four inches, the nesting cavity measuring three feet in width, by four inches in depth. This nest 

 was built at the junction of four branches with the trunk of a Coolibah tree (Eucalyptus duinosaj 

 tliirty feet from the ground, and was obtained after five hours woik by Mr. .V. W. Mullen, on 



S3 



