LESSER SPOTTED EAGLE. 109 



introduce me to the Red-breasted Flycatcher. In the course of our walk in 

 the forest we started a Spotted Eagle from her nest about eighty feet 

 from the ground in a beech tree. She flew slowly off, and alighted on 

 the summit of a pine tree not far away, where we watched her for some 

 time. 



On the following day, in a swampy forest between Stolp and the sea, we 

 took another nest of the Spotted Eagle. This time it was in a grand old 

 oak in a beech-forest interspersed with a few oaks and birches. It was 

 about sixty feet from the ground. The bird was on ; and as I was anxious 

 to obtain a specimen, we stationed ourselves round the tree. Tapping on 

 the trunk of the tree and shouting failed to alarm her; so we tired a 

 shot, when she flew off rather rapidly and fell to the forester's gun. She 

 proved to be a fully adult female. The nest was large, two feet in 

 diameter, and very flat. The final lining was fresh green grass. It con- 

 tained two eggs, one of which was chipped. 



A couple of hundred yards off was last year's " Horst," somewhat the 

 worse for a year's wind and rain. It was built in the fork of a birch tree 

 where five branches sprung from the main stem, about forty-five feet from 

 the ground. 



On the llth Dr. Holland showed me two nests of the Spotted Eagle in 

 another forest, from which he had obtained the eggs. Both were in beech 

 trees, one about thirty-five and the other about sixty feet from the ground. 

 He told me that he had seen nests of this bird in Scotch fir trees. 

 The nest has once been found on the ground (' Journ. fur Orn/ 1855, 

 p. 510). The male is said occasionally to relieve the female in the duties 

 of incubation. 



Although the Spotted Eagle looks very aquiline, sailing majestically in 

 grand sweeps over the forest, its habits appear to be very much like those 

 of the Buzzard. It rarely pursues its prey on the wing. Now and then 

 it may surprise a small bird on the ground ; but its principal food is frogs. 

 It is said to run after lizards and snakes, to eat grasshoppers and other 

 insects, the remains of which have been found in the pellets cast up by the 

 young birds, and even not to disdain carrion. 



The time to obtain fresh eggs is the first half of May ; and the number 

 in each nest is almost invariably two. Now and then one only is laid ; 

 and instances are on record of three eggs having been found in one nest ; 

 but these are extremely rare. The female is said to sit three weeks. The 

 eggs vary considerably both in size and colour, and are best described as 

 miniatures of those of the Golden Eagle. The surface is dull and some- 

 Avhat rough, and both ends are very nearly alike in shape. They vary in 

 size from 2*^5 by 2' 15 inch to 2'3 by 2'0 inch. The ground- colour is a more 

 or less creamy white. The two eggs figured were collected by Dr. Kriiper 

 in Macedonia, and are fair average examples. Some are much handsomer, 



