1982 THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



etmyo; every ravine in the spurs of the Arracan mountains seems to contain one or 

 more pairs, as well as every wooded stream in the lower ground. Their wild scream- 

 ing (whistle) is almost always to be heard long before the bird is seen, as it sits in 

 some large tree rising above the rest of the jungle, or wheels in circles far over- 

 head; it is one of the wildest and wariest of birds. One that I took from the nest 

 nearly two years ago is still as wild as ever, and constantly ruffles up the feathers 

 of its head till they look almost like the crest of a bloodsucker, leaving the top of 

 the head almost bare. It has also a habit of throwing back the head, apparently 

 looking for a hole in the top of its cage, and bending backward till it frequently 

 falls over. These birds, as far as I know, feed on mynas, rats, and frogs. I have 

 taken a young bird from the nest in the middle of May, and seen several young 

 birds about the end of that month. They build the usual hawk eagle's nest in the 

 fork of the largest and most inaccessible tree that they can find, invariably over- 

 hanging the bed of a stream. Either numbers of these birds build and do not lay, 

 or else they desert their nests on the slightest suspicion of having been discovered. 

 Several pairs of birds belonging to nests in more remote parts of the jungle seemed 

 all to have succeeded in rearing one young each. The Burmese state that the 

 birds lay only one egg, which is pure white. While the trees are in full leaf, these 

 eagles shelter themselves in the middle of some thick tree during the heat of the 

 day." A later observer in the same district, Mr. W. Davison, in commenting on 

 this account, states that he found the crested eagles perfectly silent, and accord- 

 ingly believes that the peculiar cry is uttered only during the breeding season. 



Another Indian species, the changeable crested eagle (S. caligatus), is known 

 in Garhwal as the peacock killer, and is said lo destroy a large number of 

 game birds. Mr. R. Thompson writes that he once saw one of these eagles ' ' stoop 

 at a peacock which was on the ground, and strike at his head. The peacock 

 dodged, rose, and flew into a patch of tall grass, where he lay concealed. The 

 eagle took himself to a tree close' by, whence he quietly watched the movements of 

 the other. After a while, the peacock began to move from his place of conceal- 

 ment; the moment he was well out of the grass, the eagle darted down and caught 

 him by the neck. When I got up to the place, having been a witness to the whole 

 proceeding, the eagle left his quarry and flew up into a tree; the peacock was quite 

 dead. I have often put up black partridge for these birds, and have had much 

 sport watching them flying after the game. These birds are first rate at jungle 

 fowl in the wild state. I have caught several and tried to tame them; but all my 

 falconers either refused to keep them, or destroyed them shortly after they were put 

 in their possession. A small chicken, or in its place a grown-up hen or cock, is a 

 capital bait for catching this bird. The net used is a vertical one, about eight feet 

 square, with large and stout meshes. The eagle dashes into this like fury, and is 

 always caught." 



Omitting mention of a few comparatively unimportant genera, we 



come to the consideration of those species to which, as we have seen, 



it is convenient to restrict the name of hawk eagles. Together with the true 



eagles, the hawk eagles may be distinguished from the foregoing genera with 



feathered metatarsi by the interval between the tips of the primary and secondary 



