HAWK-EAGLES. _ _ - 219 



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 ^g^, 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 accordingly 

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



Another Indian species, the changeable crested eagle {^. caligatus), is known 

 in Garhwal as the peacock - killer, and is said to 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 

 Hawk-Easles. jt «/ jt o ' 



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

 above, 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 

 quills being less than the length of the metatarsus ; and they are further character- 

 ised by the absence of a crest. The hawk-eagles have the metatarsus of considerable 

 length, but of no great thickness; and their wings are as a rule proportionately 

 shorter than in the true eagles ; while there are generally more large scales on 

 the upper surface of the toes than in the latter. The most sure way of distinguish- 

 ing between the two genera, according to Dr. Sharpe, is by comparing the length 

 of the fourth toe, measured from tlie commencement of the metatarsal feathers, 

 and exclusive of the claw, with the circumference of the beak in front of the 

 cere ; when it will be found that whereas in the hawk-eagles the two diameters 

 are equal, in the true eagles the former is less than the latter. The range of the 



