Birds of Madagascar. 209 



must wait fuller knowledge of the provincial dialects of the 

 native language*. 



The Eagles are represented in Madagascar by two if not 

 three species, of which the most common is the Ankoay or 

 Hanha, the Fishing or Sea Eagle {Haliaetus vociferoides) , 

 which is found all along the western coast and on the numerous 

 small islands off the north-west of the mainland. Captain W. 

 F. W. Owen, R.N., gives a graphic account of the habits of 

 this large and handsome bird : its keeping watch on a tree or 

 cliff at the edge of the water, its lightning-like swoop into the 

 sea after its finny prey, and its power of instantaneously arrest- 

 ing its downward flight. M. Grandidier says that a single pair 

 of these Eagles is found in many of the innumerable small 

 bays of the north-western coast, of which they take exclusive 

 possession, allowing no other Eagle to encroach on their own 

 preserves. He also says that as soon as the Eaglets become 

 old enough to provide for themselves, the parent birds per- 

 sistently drive them away from the nest and from the neigh- 

 bourhood. They usually lay only one e^^, rarely two. The 

 nest, which is very large, is built on a paudanus or other tree 

 on the shore. They are more slender in form, and the wings 

 are smaller, than in the other species of Fish Eagles. They 

 feed principally on fish, catching adroitly those which appear 

 at the surface. Compressing their wings, they dart head- 

 long on their prey ; and if this is too large to be carried in 

 their talons, they then beat its head with strokes of their 

 beak and tow it along, their wings serving as sails. The 

 northern Sakalkva name of Ankofly applied to this Eagle 

 appears to be an imitative one derived from its cry of hoai, 

 hoai. This Sea Eagle is peculiar to the island, although 

 nearly allied to an African species ; it is dark brown in colour, 

 with powerful talons. 



Of the other Madagascar Eagles (if there really are two 

 others), much less is at present known. One of them, the 

 Bare-legged or Harrier Eagle, has been formed into a dis- 

 tinct genus (Eutriorchis) by Mr. Sharpe. It appears to be 



* Possibly Tinbro is from the root thro (with the infix in) and means 

 the '• Crusher," the "' Bruiser," the " Breaker."' 



