212 a<;uilin;e. 



Dislrihutiiiii. — Oueensland, New South Wales, South Austiaha, Central Austraha, Western 

 Australia. 



CrvN comparin.t,' the precedin.t; description with (iould's orii^inal one of this species in the 

 ^ " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," and the figure in his folio edition 

 of the " Birds of Australia," it will be found to agree with neither in hardly any respect. It is 

 not, however, that of the typical form, Gould procuring the type of this species on the Hunter 

 River, but of the one most frequently found in New South Wales. Of no species of 

 the Australian Accipitres is there so wide a diflerence in colour ; for it may either have the 

 under parts, especially the females, pale fawn colour, or faint creamy-white, with brown or 

 blackish shaft stripes on the upper breast, or brown or rufous-brown, with conspicuous blackish 

 central streaks to the feathers, the head and nape too being very much darker in this variety. 

 Of the fourteen adult specimens in the Australian Museum Collection now before me, ten belong 

 to the light variety, as described above, and were all obtained by the late Mr. K. 11. liennett, 

 in the Lachlan River and Mossgiel Districts, New South Wales. Of the dark variety with the 

 conspicuous brown or rufous-brown under parts, an adult male and female were obtained by 

 Mr. George Masters, at King George's Sound, Western Australia, in April, 1866, an adult 

 female shot from the nest, received from the late Mr. George Barnard, Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, 

 (Queensland, together with the eggs, in March, iaS3, and an unlocalized specimen. 



Although widely distributed over the Australian contment, the Little Eagle is by no means 

 common anywhere, its stronghold apparently being the central and south-western portion of 

 New South Wales. The late Mr. K. H. Bennett's remarks about the shy and wary habits of 

 the male, is borne out by the adult specimens in the Australian Museum Collection, of which 

 there are twelve females and only two males. 



Mr. II. G. Barnard, of Bimbi, Duaringa, (Queensland, writes me: — "In September, 1906, 

 I found a nest of N/,'-(ei'Hw»i);/'/;Hi>;'(/(S built in a Swamp (jum. The nest was on a projecting 

 limb of a flat fork ; it then contained a single egg, out of which the young bird had almost made 

 its way. On the underside of this nest was one of the Banded Finch {I'ocfliila iiuctii). which 

 contained young and eggs, while in near proximity were no fewer than three other nests of /'. 

 ciiiiia built in the branches of the Eucalyptus; they all contained young birds. In 1907 I visited 

 this nest on the 20th August, and on approaching the tree the bird flew off; on climbing the 

 tree the nest, fifty feet from the ground, was found to contain a single egg slightly sat upon. 

 On the loth of September, 1906, I oliserved a pair of these birds commencing to reline an old 

 Crow's ( Coitus coronoichs ) nest, within a quarter of a mile of the house ; the male was very dark ; 

 by the end of September they seemed to have completed the nest, as they did not add to it ; the 

 birds remained about till the 15th October, when a single egg was laid. 1 left it for a few 

 days, hoping a second egg would be there, but as the bird commenced to sit I took the egg. 

 This Crow's nest was seventy feet from the ground, and measured externally two feet six inches in 

 diameter by one foot in depth, the egg cavity, formed of leaves, measuring ten inches in diameter 

 by three inches in depth. The usual number of eggs in a set is one, sometimes two. The food 

 of the Little Eagle consists chiefly of various reptiles, principally Frilled Lizards, of which 

 some very large ones are killed, the male bird carrying them to the nest to feed the female 

 while sitting, generally about sundown, then flying away to roost in a tree some distance off. 

 The nests vary very much in height, I have taken some as low as twenty feet, others ha\e been 

 seventy or eighty feet from the ground." 



The late Mr. K. II. Bennett wrote me : — " Aqnila iiiarpliuoidis is \ery restricted in its habitat 

 in the Lachlan River District of New South W'ales. I have never met with it south of that 

 river, and only over a distance of about sixty miles to the north, its home appearing to be the 

 wide open plains, dotted with occasional belts and clumps of timber, although it is by no means 

 numerous even there. Though somewhat inactive in habits, it is extremely shy and wary, the 



