SPIZAETTTS CETLONENSIS. 59 



Habits. — This noble little Eagle frequents open forest, the borders of heavy jungle, detached woods, 

 cheenas, and scrubs interspersed with large trees. About such localities it prowls with a slow, though buoyant 

 flight, being chiefly about in the mornings and afternoons, and searches the open ground for its favourite 

 food, the large Calotes lizard. When satisfied with the result of its excursions it perches on solitary dead 

 trees or exposed limbs of others in the forest, and enlivens the wilds with its complaining cry, which may be 

 syllabized as kre kre kre kreee, kre kre kre kreee, quickly repeated, and continued to a wearisome extent. 

 This is, however, the cry of the young or immature bird, and develops in the adult into a prolonged note in a 

 different key, and in which the principal accent is laid on the second syllable, resembling the sounds kre-kreee- 

 kre-kree. This is as invariably the voice of the brown, dark-marked birds as the former is of the light- 

 plumaged individuals. 



Of the lonely cheenas of the Eastern Province, studded with blackened trees and stumps, and scantily 

 covered with a straggling crop of " Kurrukkau " {Eleusine indica) or a few wild cucumbers, this Eagle forms a 

 marked characteristic ; perched motionless on the limb of a tall tree, it remains for a long time piping out its 

 monotonous cry, which is perhaps answered from another cheena a little distance off. At such times it is 

 seated bolt upright on one leg, with the other drawn up beneath its breast-plumes, its erect crest and its eyes 

 staring proudly before it ; and so regardless is it of all around it that it may easily be approached in the open 

 from behind to within an easy shot. 



It is a bold and courageous bird in its disposition, as is amply testified to when it is kept in confinement ; 

 but as regards its prey it captures nothing larger than jungle-fowl, squirrels, and other small mammals, and 

 feeds more on lizards than any thing else. It is exceedingly active and quick -sighted, and rarely misses 

 any thing upon which it pounces. It is quite capable of capturing a bird on the wing, and in the Kandy 

 district it is often shot carrying off poultry from the planters' bungalows ; in the villages of the Vanni it also 

 commits considerable havoc in the same way about the houses of the natives. Layard, in his notes {vide supra) , 

 speaks of one darting at a wounded Sparrow-Hawk which he had tied to a post in the verandah of his 

 bungalow. Its flight is not, as a rule, swift, but performed with steady flappings of the wings ; it rarely 

 soars — and when it does, mounts in quick small circles for a short time and then flies off at a tangent. 



The habits and disposition of birds of prey are well observed when they are in confinement ; it may not, 

 therefore, be out of place to subjoin here a short account of one of these Eagles which I reared from the nest 

 and had five years in my possession, and which is now personified in the noble little representative of the species 

 in the Zoological Gardens. When a chick he was fed upon lizards, which were first given him cut up; but as 

 soon as he could stand up, he quickly learnt to devour them in the orthodox way, beginning at the head and 

 finishing up at the tail, which he always swallowed whole. As it grew older, whenever food was thrown to it, 

 and more particularly in the case of small birds or any thing which it was fond of, it seized the prey with both 

 feet, squatted down on the tarsi, and spread forward its wings in a line with its head, at the same time 

 expanding its tail and completely covering up its prize from view ; it would then droop the head, looking at 

 the coveted morsel, and commence uttering its querulous note, endeavouring to flap its wings when approached 

 by any one, and altogether presenting a very singular appearance. This was its habit throughout life, and 

 was more particularly practised when in company with other Raptors in the same aviary, being evidently 

 its mode of shielding its prey from outward attack. He had the same method of standing on one leg and 

 resting the other on the knee-joint, with the tarsus thrust out from the perch and the toes clenched, that I 

 have observed in other Eagles, and which is no doubt a muscular exercise. 



He would now and then seize a stone and fly round the aviary with it, or at other times endeavour by main 

 force to tear up a clod from the floor of his aviary. During his first year he was a timid bird, sometimes 

 retreating into a dark corner or "cot," inhabited by a Wood-Owl (Syrniurn ochrogenys) , and stretching himself 

 out would remain there for hours ; he likewise frequently allowed his nocturnal companion, who fed as much 

 by day as by night, to rob him of his meat. Very different, however, was his nature after the first moult ; 

 he then developed both in muscular strength and courage, and became a bold and fierce little tyrant, commenced 

 by attacking his companion, and finished by killing him outright. He displayed great agility and power of 

 flight, one day darting up and seizing, through the bamboos of the aviary-roof, a Magpie-Robin that was 

 perched upon it ; at other times he would dart from his perch and catch, in the air, birds, rats, and other food 

 thrown in to him. He was fond of bathing, and invariably stood out in heavy showers of rain, in which he 



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