THE GREA T FOREST EA GLE 2 7 5 



In the island of Samar this impracticable forest is 

 found in its most impracticable form. Life there is 

 more * aloof from the ground-level than in any other 

 forest region. Mr. Ogilvie Grant dwells with due 

 emphasis on this often forgotten ' aspect of Nature ' in 

 these regions. He points out that the greater part of 

 the island is covered with dense and lofty forests, many 

 of the trees being over two hundred and forty feet high, 

 while there are no hills or rocks from which the forest 

 can be surveyed. The forest animals, monkeys, lorises, 

 and the like, live at a height of two hundred feet from 

 the ground, that being the * sunlight level,' below which 

 direct light and heat do not penetrate. Invisible, on 

 the top of this region, live the birds of the tropical 

 forest ; and on a still higher aerial plane, also invisible, 

 float the raptorial birds which prey upon them. This 

 ' tree-top ' plane of the great forest, being still terra 

 incognita , has always been regarded as a possible region 

 in which some great bird or ape may be discovered ; 

 and in spite of accumulated difficulties, Mr. Whitehead 

 did make such a discovery. He has found, and brought 

 home from the island, the largest raptorial bird yet dis- 

 covered, the great forest eagle of Samar. 



The discovery of this mighty bird of prey is the 

 more creditable to the explorer because only one pair 

 of the giant eagles was seen. Their haunt was watched 

 daily, and at last the male bird was shot, and though it 



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