NISAETUS PENNATUS. 8/7; 
32. NIsAETUS PENNATUS. Booted Haele. 
Aquila pennata, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 10 (1867). 
Le Vaillant found this species only in the forests of Outeniqualand, 
perching on the summits of high trees, and shy and difficult of 
approach. Dr. Smith cites it as from near ‘‘ Heeren Logement,” in 
Clanwilliam. A young bird, shot by Mr. Jackson at Nel’s Poort, is 
entirely of a dark-brown colour, in some places inclining to black. 
He tells us he was attracted to it by its peculiar cry, and has never 
seen another. 
We have procured it at Saldanha Bay on the West Coast, 
and found it breeding on the Berg River in the month of Sep- 
tember. It has also been obtained near Grahams-town, but has 
not yet occurred to Mr. Ayres in Natal or the Transvaal, though Dr. 
Dickerson procured a single example at Chibisa in the Zambesi 
district. Mr. Gurney also states that Mr. Andersson’s last collection 
contained one of these Hagles obtained in Ondonga, Ovampo 
Land. 
The nests are placed in trees, very similar to those of Buteo jackal; 
the eggs are generally two, of a dirty white ground, more or less 
blotched and smeared with light reddish-brown ; axis, 2”5'’’; diam., 
1” 10’’’.. Our son also found a nest containing a pair of eggs at 
Grootevaders-bosch, near Swellendam. The nests we examined all 
contained green leaves. Mr. Henry Buckley sends the accompanying 
note :—“ An egg of this species sent me by Layard from South 
Africa is white blotched with light brown, and measures 2°17 x 1:78. 
Eggs from Spain measure 2:03 to 2:24 long by 1:7 to 1°82 broad 
(Vide Ibis, 1866, p. 389). Hume (Scrap Book, p. 187) records an 
Indian egg measuring 2°13 x 1°78.” 
Above brown ; the shoulder feathers margined with white; ears 
and space behind the base of the lower mandible brown-black ; under 
parts white; the breast and anterior part of belly streaked with 
brown-black ; tail nearly even, black-brown, variegated with narrow, 
irregular, wavy bars of a darker tint, and all tipt with obscure white; 
legs feathered to the toes. Length, 20”; wing, 14”; tail, 8”. 
Fig. Dresser, B. of Eur. part xxxil. 
