120 BUSH WA^'DEUIXGS. 



round in steady circles, \Yithout apparently moving tlieir 

 wings. We had plenty of them on the kangaroo-ground, 

 and I procured above a dozen fine specimens in one 

 winter. They were often on the ground, and I fancy 

 were principally carrion-feeders ; they bred in our 

 forests ; the nest very large, invariably placed in the 

 fork of a large gum-tree; not always very high, but 

 generally inaccessible to any but a black. Several old 

 deserted nests stood in the forests, mementoes of by- 

 gone days, before the foot of the white man trod these 

 wilds; and I recollect the eagle-hawk's nest on an old 

 blasted gum was one of our favourite " try sting places " 

 when driving kangaroo ; this bird is not neai^y so shy as 

 the European eagle, and when goi'ged with carrion by no 

 means difiicult to approach. 



The Large White FlsJiing Saiclc was by no means 

 rare on our coasts ; they were generally flying up and 

 down the beach, and I rarely saw them far inland. It is 

 hardly so large as the wedge-tailed eagle, but thicker and 

 more robust in appearance, and rounder in the wing 

 when flying ; the tail is not so long, but also wedge- 

 shaped and rounded ; the body-colour, and wings, are 

 slate-blue ; the neck, breast, and belly, white ; the shaft 

 of each feather dark. It was not a true osprey, but in 

 the shape of the head resembled that bird ; the feathers 

 on the neck were shorter : it was by no means so common 

 as the eagle-hawk. I once found the nest of this bird on 

 an old dead gum-tree, in a wood about half a mile from 

 the coast. "We went several times by day to shoot the 



