1871.] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 683 



At first I found it impossible to get within shot of these Eagles, 

 though I used a double-barrel No. 7 Duck-gun, carrying 7 drs. of 

 powder and 2 oz. of shot. Latterly, however, I devised means by 

 which a bird was hardly lost, and not only saved myself a consider- 

 able amount of ammunition, but also bodily suffering. Happening 

 to be out one morning without my gun, I rode up to an Imperial 

 which was perched on the top of a babool, some 25 feet high, in 

 order to see how close the bird would allow me to approach. Having 

 got to about 20 yards from the tree, and the bird showing no signs 

 of uneasiness, I stalked her in a circuitous way (the same as one does 

 when shooting Antelope), narrowing the circle each round I took, 

 till at last I pulled up right under the tree, and looked the Eagle 

 full in the face. She (sex judged from her size) was in the lineated 

 stage, and kept her eyes fixed on me, apparently -quite fascinated, 

 and refused actually to fly notwithstanding I waved my hat at her. 

 After this successful manoeuvre I gave up shooting Raptores on foot, 

 and invariably rode up to them in the manner above described, 

 making my shikaree carry a small gun on my off-side, and giving 

 him the order to fire when I got sufficiently close. 



The food of the Imperial Eagle is as disgusting as it is varied 

 according to circumstances ; but I do not think the epithets " a great 

 hulking Kite " and " ignoble feeder " * are justly applicable, at least 

 not as far as my experience goes. It is true that the bird will con- 

 sort with Vultures over a dead Bullock, making a hearty meal 

 thereof, and that I have on several occasions found Frogs in their 

 crops ; but all Eagles will feed on carrion when pressed by hunger. 

 I have found F. imperialis at times a bold and fearless bird, as the 

 following anecdotes will show: — When encamped in the station of 

 Eta, on the 7th of March last, I threw out the body of an Imperial 

 which had just been skinned, and in a few moments I shot a brother 

 Imperial in the act of tearing it to pieces, from my tent door. On 

 another occasion a Wokab (Jquila fulvescens) had just deprived a 

 Kite of the entrails of a Fowl, which again was immediately after- 

 wards taken possession of by an Imperial, which in return fell to a 

 charge of my gun in the most public part of my camp. 



These instances are enough to show that my friend Dr. Tristram 

 has rightly depicted the character of this Eagle when he calls it a 

 " truly imperial bird," and, again, that "there is a beauty and ma- 

 jesty in its movements, and in its greater fearlessness of man when 

 in search of food, which at once attracts one" f. Though hunger 

 will compel this bird to eat carrion, there is no doubt that it prefers 

 better food. I have seen them times without number perched on 

 the boughs of trees overlooking swamps, evidently on the look-out 

 for Ducks. 



Early one morning, when out shooting (the sun had hardly risen), 

 I heard the melancholy notes of the Brahminee Duck (Casarca rutila) 

 overhead (a sound that must be familiar to every Indian sportsman), 

 and five minutes later I saw a huge Imperial in the act of devouring 



* Rough Notes, part i. p. 145. 

 t Ibis, 1865, p. 251. 



