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231 



very tame bird, appearing to have little fear ot man, and will often sit perfectly quiet, percfied 

 upon the branch of a tree, at no great height from the ground, while men rode beneath. If 

 approached while sitting, they usually (ly from the nest when one is anything within two 

 hundred yards from the tree in which the nest is built : sometimes, although rarely, they will not 

 leave the nest at all as people pass beneath. Although I have taken one hundred sets 

 of their eggs, and climbed to many nests with young, I have only once known this species to 

 show light, that was while scooping a pair of eggs eighty feet up in a large Red ('mm, the Eagle 

 several times made a bold dash at the scoop, and I believe would have taken it in her claws had 

 I not ducked it just in time. Their food consists principally of rabbits (in these parts), and yet 

 I have never seen them kill one themselves, and 1 very much doubt if they ever do so, excepting 

 they might occasionally take a very young one. Many of their old nests have the remains of 

 rabbits in them. The food which 1 think they prefer to all others is the ground 'Iguana' or 

 Lace Lizard ( Varanm varins). I have several times seen about half a dozen making a meal off" 



one of these 

 reptiles, but I 

 very much doubt 

 if they killed 

 it themselves. 

 I 'sually they lay 

 only two eggs, 

 but of the hun- 

 dred sets of 

 their eggs which 

 I h a \' e taken 

 thirteen were 

 clutches of 

 three, and nnce 

 1 climbed to a 

 nest in which 

 there were three 

 young. When 

 they lay only two 

 eggs it IS mostly 

 on successive 

 days, yet I have known the interval of a fortnight between, but from the little experience I have 

 had with clutches of three eggs I fancy there is very often an interval of a few days between the 

 laying of each egg." 



Writing from Cobborah Station on the 30th June, lyii, Mr. Austin remarks:— "I have not 

 been bothering much about the nests of the Whistling Eagle this year, so did not know where 

 to get a good photograph, but after hunting for four mornings I could only find five pairs of 

 birds breeding, and four of these nests had young, and they were built in such terrible places it 

 was almost impossible to get a photograph of them. The only one with eggs I could find was 

 built by the Whistling Eagles themselves two years ago, and not by Ravens. You will see by 

 the enclosed photograph it was not an easy one to reach. I might say I had a good look at it 

 each of the last four mornings, and it was only as a last hope that I tackled it. The nest was 

 just about eighty feet from the ground, and was in a very awkward position to get at, to say 

 nothing about getting the nest down. However, this is the best I can do at present; one 

 photograph shows the nest in the Red Gum tree in its natural position, the other is taken on 

 the ground alter lowering the nest down with a rope. Speaking from memory, the measurement 



XRST AXri Ki.i^S (IK HIIISILlNi. KM.I.K 



