608 Lieut. C. G. Finch-Davies on [Ibis, 



XXII. — Notes on South African Accipitres. 

 By Lieut. C. G. Finch-Davies, 1st S.A.M.R. 



[Coutinued from p. 438.] 



38. Aquila wahlbergi (Sund.). Wahlberg's Eagle. 



1 have not had much opportunity of observing this small 

 .Eagle, as I have only met with it within the last few years in 

 the South-West Protectorate, where it does not seem to be 

 very coinmcui. I have always found it in the Thornbush 

 country, usually in pairs. The note is a clear plaintive 

 whistle of two notes. I believe the i)rey to consist almost 

 entirely of small mammals, lizards, snakes, and insects, and 

 I have never known it to attack game-birds. I found two 

 nests, both situated in inaccessible positions in the forks 

 of high Camel-thorn trees. It appears to breed much later 

 than most Eagies, as nests which were certainly occupied 

 were found in December and January, i.e., midsummer, 

 whereas most of the larger birds-of-prey usually breed 

 during the winter months, May and June. I have noticed 

 a cuiious habit, in the manner in whicii the female bird 

 approaches the eyrie. After circling round for some time at 

 a great heiglit above it, she would close her wings and drop 

 like a stone till within a few feet of it, Avhen, opening 

 her wings and spreading her tail, she would check her 

 impetus and alight gently on the eggs. Mr. C. H. Taylor, 

 writing of this species in the 'Journal of the South African 

 Ornithologists' Union,' as observed by him in Swaziland, 

 noticed the same habit. 



Sclater, following Sliarpe, appears to have made a mistake 

 in describing the young plumage of this species. He 

 describes the young bird as having the sides of the head and 

 neck and whole under surface white, with a few remains of 

 bars on the Hanks, under tail- and wing-coverts. To what 

 species this description refers I cannot say, possibly to 

 Hieraetus ayresi; the same specimen is apparently figured 

 in the background of plate 77 in the 'Transactions of the 

 Zoological Society/ vol. iv., where the present species is 



