42 NISAETUS PENNATUS. 



Burmah in any quantity. It is recorded as being comparatively rare in Pegu, neither Mr. Oatcs nor Captain 

 Fcildcn having procured many examples of it in that region. 



From the west of India its range extends through Persia to Palestine, south-eastern, southern, and central 

 Europe; whereas on the south of the Mediterranean it inhabits Egypt and Algeria, and thence extends, 

 probably bv way of the east coast, to the south of the continent, having been procured in Damara hand by 

 Mr. Andersson. Lord Lilford found it common in Spain near Seville, and remarks that it inhabits many otlicr 

 parts of the Peninsula. Mons. L. Bureau records it as an inhabitant of the west of France, and Count 

 Wodzicki of the Carpathians, while other naturalists, as quoted in Mr. Dresser's 'Birds of Europe/ have met 

 with it in Central Germany and many parts of Russia. In Palestine Canon Tristram believes it to be confined 

 to the north, and only observed it between the months of October and March. 



Habits. — The Booted Eagle frequents hilly, wooded country, as well as open plains, cultivated land, and 

 ground covered sparsely with small timber and scrub, where it finds an abundance of food in birds, small 

 vermin, and perhaps some kinds of reptiles. It is partial to districts where woods and clumps of forest are 

 intermingled with low jungle. It is a bold and daring bird and very active on the wing, in testimony of 

 which Mr. Hume, in his ' Rough Notes,' quotes from the letters of Mr. R. Thompson, who observed one of 

 these Eagles dash into a tree, and seize a bird out of a flock of Parakeets, while on another occasion he witnessed 

 the attempted capture of a rat on the ground. Layard, in writing of the specimen he shot at Pt. Pedro, after 

 narrating that he had mistaken it in the twilight of the morning for a Brahminy Kite, remarks, " it suddenly 

 pounced upon a Buibul roosting in an oleander bush : this at once undeceived me ; and as it rose with its victim 

 in its claws, I fired and brought it to the ground. It fought with determined spirit and kept a small terrier 

 at bay, till I killed it with the butt-end of my gun." 



Jerdon, in his ' Birds of India,' notes its destructive habits, and says that it pounces on doves, pigeons, 

 and chickens, and that it forages about villages in company with Kites, who are often unjustly blamed for the 

 depredations in reality committed by the " Dwarf Eagle." Although fierce in its nature it is at times sociably 

 inclined, even towards other members of its order; for Mr. Brooks has seen it, several at a time, seated on the 

 ground in company with the Common Kite. The note of the Booted Eagle is a wild scream, which is said to 

 be different from that of most other Eagles. It was observed by Capt. Feilden in Burmah to perch much in 

 thickly foliaged trees, a somewhat abnormal habit for the Eagle family. 



In Spain it appears, says Lord Lilford, " to prefer open country and isolated groups of trees to large 

 extents of forest," and is, according to the natives, " the scourge of the Quails in Andalucia." It arrives in 

 the country in April, breeds there, and departs in October. 



Nidification. — The Dwarf Eagle does not breed commonly within the Indian limits. Mr. Hume records, 

 in ' Nests and Eggs/ a nest found at Hurroor, near Salem. It was built in the branch of a high banyan tree, 

 about 50 feet from the ground, and consisted of dry twigs, being a circular platform in shape, with a slight 

 depression in the centre and devoid of lining. The eggs were two in number, of a dead white ground-colour, 

 and one of them blotched and streaked with reddish brown. The egg measured 2 - 13 by 1"78 inch. In Spain, 

 Lord Lilford, who found many nests, chiefly built in pine-groves, says that they are invariably lined with 

 green leaves, which is a common practice with the Eagle tribe. These nests, when built in pines, were situated 

 at the junction of a large lower branch with the trunk, and all, as well as others found by him, contained two 

 eggs. The figures on pi. x. of ' The Ibis ' for 1866 show the variation in the colouring, the one being dull white 

 with a few faint reddish blotches about the centre, and the other clouded and dashed with two or more shades 

 of light reddish. The lighter of the two measures 2 - OA by 173 inch, and the larger and more handsomely 

 coloured 2 - 26 by L83 inch. 



