O BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Family FALCONID-ffi. 

 Genus AQUILA, Briss. 

 Sp. 1. AQUILA AUDAX. 



Wedge-tailed Eagle. 



Mountain Eagle of New South Wales, Collins, New South Wales, vol. ii. 



pi. in p. 288. 

 Vultur audax, Lath. Ind. Orn., supp. p. 2. 

 Falco fucosus , Cuv. Regn. Anim., 1st edit. pi. 3. f. 1. 

 Aquila fucosa, Cuv. Regn. Anim., 2nd edit. pi. 3. f. 1. 

 albirostris, Vieill. 2nde edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., torn. i. 



p. 229. 



audax, Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. xi. p. 189. 



■ cuneicaudata, Brehm, Isis, 1845, p. 356. 



(Uroaetus) audax, Kaup, Classif. der Saug. und Vog., p. 12. 



Wol-dja, Aborigines of the mountain and lowland districts of Western 



Australia (Gilbert). 

 Eagle Hawk, Colonists of New South Wales. 



Aquila fiicosa, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. i. pi. 1. 



This noble bird is so universally spread over the southern 

 portion of Australia, that it is quite unnecessary for me to 

 enter more minutely into detail respecting the extent of its 

 range, than to say that it is equally distributed over the 

 whole of the country from Swan River on the west to 

 Moreton Bay on the east ; it is also as numerous in Tasmania 

 and on all the larger islands in Bass's Straits, being of course 

 more plentiful in such districts as are suited to its habits, and 

 where the character of the country is congenial to the animals 

 upon which it subsists. I have not yet seen it, in any collec- 

 tion, either from the northern portion of Australia or any other 

 country. In all probability it will hereafter be found that its 

 range extends over corresponding latitudes in the southern hemi- 

 sphere to those over which the Golden Eagle {Aquila chrysaetos) 

 does in the northern : the two birds are, in fact, beautiful ana- 



