60 Mr. E. C. Stuart BakcM- on the [Il)is, 



I have more than once, also, seen them stoop at and strike 

 Jungle-fowl or Kalij Pheasant^ either just on the outskirts 

 of forest or actually in the forest itself. One evening I was 

 going through some beautiful oak forest, high up on the 

 Barail Range, when two or three Jungle-fowl ran across 

 the path, from one side to the other, into the thin cover of 

 caladiums and ferns which carpeted the ground. Just as they 

 •were disappearing out of sight, there was a rushirig swish 

 through the air, and a magnificent Black Eagle came hurtling 

 down, struck the old cock Jungle-fowl fair on the back, 

 bowling it over in a cloud of feathers. As the Eagle struck 

 it rose again with a few flaps of its wings, and then turning 

 in its stride, so to speak, was back instantaneously on to the 

 fowl, which it seized and carried away without any apparent 

 eft'ort to a tree close by. It was most remarkable the 

 manner in which this Eagle stooped through the interlacing 

 boughs of the lofty trees, and again, when it had seized its 

 prey, twisted its way in and out of their trunks whilst 

 moving at great speed. The majority of birds-of-prey 

 require more or less open ground in which to stoop, and 

 the smaller birds when once they have obtained the cover of 

 a tree or bush consider themselves safe. The performance 

 as I have described it cannot, however, be anything unusual 

 for the Black Eagle, as I once saw one eating a hen Jungle- 

 fowl on a tree miles from any big clearance or open space, 

 and have twice on other occasions seen them eating Wood- 

 Partridge well in the heart of extensive forest. Probably 

 they frequent the outskirts of clearances, rivers, and open 

 glades for choice when hunting, but there is no doubt that 

 forest and cover is no deterrent to the Eagle stooping when 

 hungry, and is but little safeguard to the quarry. 



They do not, however, restrict themselves to bigger game, 

 and will eat locusts, grasshoppers, lizards, etc., and I have 

 seen them regularly quartering deep and gloomy nullahs in 

 heavy forest, and now and then stooping and seizing small 

 things both in the air and oft' the ground and bushes, which 

 I was too far away to identify. Their flight under these 

 circumstances is slow, but very easy and pliant, and when 



