184 FALCOXID.E. 



tree. I found one exception to this among the ruins of the 

 ancient city of Lixus near el Arish, or Larache, in Morocco, the 

 nest being built in a thick mastick or lentiscus bush, the base 

 of the nest actually touching the ground on the hill-side. In this 

 instance there was no want of trees in the neighbourhood to 

 account for the nest being placed in such an unusual situation. 



On the 24th of April I shot the hen bird as she flew out of the 

 bush. Had she remained quiet, probably the nest would not 

 have been found ; it contained the usual single large rough 

 white egg, slightly incubated. 



I never knew the Short-toed Eagle to nest in rocks, as Favier 

 states, though have often seen them perched on crags and large 

 stones ; but it is now well known that no absolute rule can be 

 laid down as to the breeding of many species of the Diurnal 

 Raptores exclusively on rocks or trees ; they simply accommodate 

 themselves to the country, even nesting on the ground if trees, 

 rocks, or ruins are not available. 



Verner remarks that " all the nests I have seen of the Snake- 

 Eagle were, with one exception out of about forty, on horizontal 

 boughs of cork-trees, between ten and twenty feet from the 

 ground. These Eagles take no pains to conceal their nest, but, 

 owing to the similarity of the cork-trees and enormous extent of 

 country covered by them, manage to escape detection more often 

 than might be expected. The nest is abnormally small for so 

 large a bird, some not being larger round than a hand-basin, and 

 are an almost flat platform of sticks with a slight hollow in the 

 middle. 



" The earliest dates of eggs were : 2Cth of March, 1894 ; ICth 

 of April, 1878, one fresh egg; 21st of April, 1878, and 25th of 

 April, 1879, incubated eggs. 



" On 25th March, 1877, I saw great numbers passing north at 

 Gibraltar; and on 7th April, 1876, one with a broken wing was 

 picked up close to Europa Lighthouse." 



This bird appears to almost entirely live on reptiles, and is 



