REVIEW. 6it 



a man round his perch to put him out to the gun, as with greoa 

 pigeons. He is not quite cowfiroJ to forest, coming out into the plaina 

 where large trees are abundant, or to long, well planted avenues ; 

 eveuj at times, to well shaded villages, where the crows soon raise 

 the alarm. This bird sometimes hunts by twilight. A party returning 

 from field work in Gujarat saw what they took for a hare, sitting- 

 up on open ground, with cocked ears and ufiusually bold. Upon 

 approach, the hare turned into an eagle, and fiew away. A random 

 shot in the dusk only made him drop what turned out to be an " Ice- 

 bird" (night-hawk) ; with its back broken and breast bared of 

 flesh. The nearest trees were some hundred feet away, further than 

 a night-hawk will commonly go before dusk ; and the quarry was 

 still smoking warm. This bird is chiefly Peninsular, but a sub-species 

 is found in Ceylon. We seem to have no other of the genus ; and 

 the Hawk-eagles end with it. Their following neighbours are the 

 Serpent-eagles, who are to be distinguished (briefly) from all previously 

 mentioned by their long bare shanks and diet '; chiefly of reptiles 

 and frogs. Of the first genus, Circcelus^ we have one species, 

 C, gallicus. 



This, though a large bird, cuts no great figure, except when 

 soaring in circles, on the look-out for prey. Its action is rather 

 like that of the Kestrels, Harriers, and some owls, checking itself, 

 hovering, and dropping on the quarry, without the rushing stoop 

 of the nobler species ; the round pufiy head is rather owlish, and so, 

 oddly enough, is the broad white egg. To do it justice, it does not 

 oat carrion, the besetting meanness of the typical eJigles, 



As a bird of open country, and waging great war on snakes, it is 

 well-kno\^T3 to the natives ; and they have plenty of stories about it. 

 But to Europeans the next bird is more interesting and attractivo. 

 This is Spilornis clieela, the crested Serpent-eagle ; by some called 

 the Harrier Eagle, with much propriety. For no other eagle so 

 frequently and closely imitates the action of the Harrier Hawks ; 

 quartering ground at a little height often in pairs, with great pains 

 and method. 



It can *' also be seen soaring, and may be at once recognized by the 



trongly marked bars on its wings and tail, and by its loud plain - 



tiv:r cry, which it frequently utters when on the wing" ; and dao 



