BIRDS OF PREY. 



THE BOLD WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE. 



17 



The Bold Wedge-tailed Eagle ( Uroaelos aicdax) is three feet one inch long, and about six feet 

 eight inches broad. The back and sides of the throat are rust colour, the rest of the body blackish 

 brown. The feathers of the wings and upper tail-covers are edged and tipped with pale brown. The 

 eye is yellowish white, the beak is yellowish grey at its root, and yellow at the extremity ; the feet 

 are pale yellow. Another species or variety is also met with, more slender in form and paler in 

 plumage than that above described. 



The Bold Wedge-tailed Eagles are common throughout Australia, where they frequent open 

 plains and forests, preferring such localities as are inhabited by kangaroos. Gould tells us that all 

 that has been said about the strength, courage, and rapacity of the Tawny Eagle may also be applied 

 to these birds, whose unremitting attacks upon flocks of sheep are a cause of constant loss to the 

 colonists ; small kangaroos they destroy in great numbers, but rarely contend with such as are full 

 grown. Gould also mentions having seen one of these Eagles pursuing a mother kangaroo with great 

 patience, and watching for the moment when fatigue would compel her to empty the young from her 

 pouch, and thus yield them an easy prey. From the same source we learn that they will eat carrion, 

 and may often be seen perched thirty or forty at a time upon the carcase of an ox. The eyrie is 

 built upon such high trees as to be almost inaccessible ; in size it varies considerably, as it is 

 enlarged and repaired from time to time by its owners, who return to the same nest for many 

 successive years. The outer walls are formed of large boughs, these again are interwoven with 

 smaller branches, and the interior lined with leaves and slender twigs. According to Ramsay, the 

 breeding season is at the end of the summer. The eggs, two in number, are round and rough 

 shelled, three inches long, and at the thickest part two inches and three-eighths in diameter ; these 

 are white, spotted with red, yellowish brown, or purple. Many forests contain the remains of large 

 settlements made by these birds before the white man had penetrated into the interior of the country. 

 The Bold Wedge-tailed Eagle is often taken young from the nest by the natives, and when reared 

 exported to Europe. 



The HAWK EAGLES (Pseudaetos Eudolma'etos, or Asturaetos) constitute a group distin- 

 guished by their comparatively short wings, that do not reach the end of the very long tail, and 

 by their high tarsi, feathered even to the toes, which are armed with long and broad curved talons; 

 the beak is long, but powerful. 



THE HAWK EAGLE. 

 Bonelli's Hawk Eagle {Pseudaetos Boncllii), as the European representative of this group is 

 called, is about two feet four inches long, and four feet ten inches broad ; the wing measures one foot 

 four inches, and the tail ten inches. The female is three inches longer and four inches broader. 

 Upon the brow the plumage is white, as is also a streak passing over the eyes ; the top of the 

 head and nape are brown, darkly striped ; the upper part of the back is white, its feathers having 

 blackish-brown spots upon their edges ; the mantle is of a uniform dark brown, and blackish brown 

 at its extremity ; the upper tail-covers are white, mottled with brown ; the throat, breast, and centre of 

 belly white, the shafts of the feathers spotted with black ; the upper surface of the tail is greyish 

 brown, tipped with white, and marked with seven crooked dark lines ; the under side is whitish yellow, 

 spotted with brownish grey. In the young the top of the head is light red, the nape fawn colour, the 

 mantle light brown, each feather being bordered with reddish yellow ; the tail is greyish brown above, 

 streaked ten times, and edged with white ; the lower portion of the body is principally of a pale 

 yellowish brown, the feathers having delicate dark streaks upon the shafts ; the belly and lower wing- 

 vol, 11. — 42 



