NOTE-BOOK or A NATURALIST. 95 



What tlie golden eagle is to tlie northern liemispliere, 

 the wedge-tailed eagle is to the southern. Universally 

 spread over the southern portion of Australia, numerous 

 in Van Diemen's Land and on the larger islands of Bass's 

 Straits, Mr. Gould is of opinion that it will, in all proba- 

 bility, be found to extend its range as far towards the 

 tropics in the south as the golden eagle does in the north. 

 Of great power and ferocity, it is the scourge of the 

 shepherds and stock-owners, who wage deadly war against 

 it, and unweariedly seek its extirpation. One, killed by 

 Mr. Gould, weighed nine pounds, and measured six feet 

 eight inches in alar extent ; but his impression is, that 

 far larger individuals have come under his notice. Some 

 opinion of its strength may be formed from the act of 

 the bird figured by Collins, which was captured by Cap- 

 tain Waterhouse, during an excursion to Broken Bay, 

 and struck its talons through a man's foot, while lying in 

 the bottom of the boat with its legs tied together. 

 During the ten days of its captivity it refused food from 

 all but one person. The natives, who looked on it with 

 fear, could not be prevailed on to go near it, and they 

 asserted that it would carry off a middling-sized kanguroo. 

 But the brave bird could not brook confinement ; and 

 one morning the broken rope by which it was fastened 

 was all that remained. The captive had divided the 

 strands and soared away. 



Its natural prey consists chiefly of the smaller species 

 of kanguroo. These its piercing eye detects as it wheels 

 aloft, circling gracefully till a victim is marked, when 

 down it comes with unerring and fell swoop. Mr. Gould 

 states that the bustard,* whose weight is twice that of 



* This was probably tbe bird shot by Mr. Ferdinand Bauer on 

 Wellesley's Islands, which weighed between ten and twelve pounds, 

 and made Captain Flinders and his party * an excellent dinner,' 

 after poor Mr. Bauer had carried it on his back many a weaiy 



