MS.ETU.S. 213 



male bein>( more difficult to obtain than the female. The only way I coukl procure specimens 

 was to secrete myself carefully within gunshot of the nests, and await the return of the birds. Its 

 |)jwers of rti'^ht, although strong, are by no means swift, and its prey, which onsists of various 

 small mammals, reptiles, and young birds, such as Crows, Magpies, >.Vc., is almost always 

 captured by watching and suddenly pouncing upon them. Like Aqnila aiidax it is very destructive 

 to rabbits, which animal it walclies tor with the utmost patience. The nest, which is very small 

 for the si^e of the bird, is a loosely constructed fabric, almost flat, and composed of sticks lined 

 with a few green Eucalyptus leaves, the top of a Pine fCa/Z/Vm, sp. J or Box (Eiiccilyptiis, sp.J, 

 some twenty or thirty feet from the ground, and tlie only trees of any size in the locality, being 

 a favourite place for building. As a rule it lays but one egg, though two may be occasionally 

 found. On the 17th (Jctober, at Mossgiel, I found a nest containing a young one about a week 

 old, and wishing to obtain a specimen in a more advanced stage, I left it intending to return at 

 a later date and get it. Unfortunately I was unable to visit the locality until tlie 24th December, 

 when I expected to find the nest empty, but to my surprise found a young one just hatched. 

 The birds must either have bred a second time, or another pair had raken possession of the nest. 

 I tO(jl< an egg at Vandembah Statiuu, Lachlan Iviver, on the 2i;th of August, is88, from a nest 

 placed on a branch of a Box-tree, about twenty-fi\'e feet from the ground. On riding into the 

 clump of trees in which the nest was situated, I started a rabbit, wh ch ran a short distance and 

 then squatted. The male bird, who was soaring overhead at the time, observed the rabbit, and 

 descended on it like a stone, clutched it in his talons, held it for a second or two. relaxed 

 his grasp and mounted for a few feet in the air, and then alighted on the ground beside 

 the rabbit, which, on riding up, I found was dead. ()n the nth September, 1889, I shot from 

 the nest a tine example of Aquila nuivpluioidcs ; the nest contained but one egg, on which the 

 parent bird had been sitting for some time. I also took an egg from a nest in a Pine-tree on the 

 i6th October, i8qo. These birds are now rare in the locality, althouLch formerly numerous. 

 .'\t Mossgiel, on the 2nd November, 1870, I took a young bird just hatched from the nest, in the 

 down, and shot the parent bird, which I presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum. 

 On the nth ],)ecember, 1883, I shot a young bird about three months old. and on the 24th 

 December, 1883, I took a young bird about two months old from the nest, both of which are in 

 the Australian i\Iuseum. These birds usually conmience to breed early in Septemlier, and the 

 young leave the nest about the end of December. They make a new nest every season." 



Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me as follows from liroken Mill, in South-western New South 

 Wales : — " The Little Lagle is found quite commonly along all the creeks which intersect the 

 open country. It is a quiet and inoffensive bird, subsisting almost wholly upon rabbits now that 

 that rodent has displaced all the smaller native animals. It is not easily alarmed, and sitting 

 in a tree will allow of a close inspection, but on too close an approach flaps slowly away. It is 

 often seen soaring high in the air, especially on a line simimer's day, the wings then are not 

 outstretched t'.) the same extent as those of the Wedge-tailed Eagle or Kite. The only cry 

 I ha\e heard it utter is a plaintive piping one, and then only when persecuted by Crows; at all 

 other times it is silent. Nest building starts about the be,L;imiing of Ausust, the site usually 

 chosen beini,' the topmost forks of a thin limb on a (iuiii, the nest beim; a bulky structure of 

 sticks, something like a Raven's when seen trom below, but always lined with ^^reen leaves, the 

 average external diameter being about two feet, and of the egg cavity about eiL;ht to ten inches 

 by two and a half inches deep. From its bulk and situation the nest rarely lasts from year to 

 year in a region where violent wind storms prevail, and so is rarely relined and re-occupied two 

 seasons in succession, excepting where an individual has departed from the general habit of this 

 species, and chosen a more stable situation. Only one brood is reared, unless the eggs are 

 destroyed or taken, when the birds nest again. One pair of birds will nest in the same tree or 

 neighbourhood year after year. Eggs are laid during September and the early part of October, 

 my earliest record being the 27th August and latest 29th October, most of the eggs being laid 



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