RAPTORES. 17 



by some species of Dinornis ; but it is quite evident from 

 the account given by Flinders that they must have been 

 formed by a bird of the Raptorial order, and I have no doubt 

 that they were the nests of the present bird. 



" Near Point Possession," says PUnders, " were found two 

 nests of extraordinary magnitude. They were built upon the 

 ground, from which they rose above two feet; and were of 

 vast circumference and great interior capacity, the branches of 

 trees and other matter, of which each nest was composed, 

 being enough to fill a small cart. Captain Coolc found one 

 of these enormous nests upon Eagle Island, on the east 

 coast." Subsequently Flinders found another of these nests, 

 in which were " several masses resembling those which contain 

 the hair and bones of mice, and are disgorged by tlie Owls 

 after the flesh is digested. These masses were larger, and 

 consisted of the hair of seals and of land animals, of the scaly 

 feathers of Penguins, and the bones of birds and small 

 quadrupeds." — Flinders s Voyage, vol. i. pp. 64 and 81. 



Genus HALIASTUR, Selhy. 



Sp. 4. HALIASTUR LEUCOSTERNUS, Gould. 



White-breasted Sea-Eagle. 



White-breasted Rufous Eagle, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. i. p. 218. 



Halienetus lecosternus, Gould, in Proc. of Zooh Soc, part v. p. 138. 



Falco ponticerianus, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pi. 389. 



Haliaetus {Ictinoaetus) leucosternon, Kaup, Isis, 1847, p. 276. 



Girrenera, Aborigines of New South Wales. 



Me-ne-u-roo, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula. 



Haliastur leucosternus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. i. pi. iv. 



In size and in the general markings of its plumage, this 

 beautiful species is closely allied to the Haliastur intermedius 

 of Java, and the //. Indus of India ; but the total absence of 

 the coloured stripe down the centre of the white featliers 



