502 



belonging to the feathered tribes, it strikes in the air. It seldom soars to any great height, 

 although on rare occasions I have seen it rise to a height from which it was hardly distin- 

 guishable. They generally rest on trees, preferring a dead or sear bough, whence they watch 

 their prey, and, when the opportune moment arrives, dash off in pursuit, again returning to the 

 same resting-place if unsuccessful. When thus engaged they will permit a very near approach ; 

 and thus they are very easily shot. 



" In the spring of 1865 I observed a nest of this bird placed on an ash tree overhanging the 

 stream at the southern entrance of the Pravidy valley : it was more neatly put together than most 

 of the Eagles' nests, and was warmly and softly lined with the blossoms of the ash tree ; it con- 

 tained one young bird just hatched, and two eggs already cracked by the young birds within. 

 On the edge of the nest were the two fore legs of a leveret. Directly I descended from the tree, 

 one of the parent birds returned to the nest ; and I observed her mate sitting on an old dead tree 

 a couple of hundred yards off; this bird was intently watching a flock of some twenty or thirty 

 Magpies which were busily engaged picking the bones of an old carcass that the Vultures had 

 demolished. As I rode past, the Magpies took to flight, and the Eagle, leaving his resting- 

 place, instantly started off in pursuit of them ; on coming up to them he singled one out, and, 

 after following it through a few intricate but futile attempts to escape, rose slightly above his 

 prey and with one stroke felled it to the ground, and, following it as it fell, reached the ground 

 almost at the same moment." 



Examples obtained by Messrs. Elwes and Buckley in Turkey and Macedonia are also referable 

 to the present species. These gentlemen say (Ibis, 1870, p. 68) that it was the commonest Eagle 

 there. It breeds in the forest of Babadagh, in Bulgaria, and in the forest of Belgrade, near 

 Constantinople. Examples brought from Greece by Mr. Hanbury-Barclay were also referable to 

 Aquila clanga. Dr. Kriiper writes that it occurs in Greece in the winter season, and breeds in 

 Acarnania and iEtolia and likewise in Macedonia, but was not found breeding in Asia Minor. 

 Lord Lilford writes (Ibis, 1860, p. 4), it was " very abundant, in January and February in 1857, 

 in all the marshes of Epirus — less so, but still common, in the following winter. As soon as 

 a gun is fired in any of the marshes about Butrinto, one or more of these birds is sure to 

 appear and keep flying about from tree to tree, apparently on the watch for prey, though I never 

 saw them pursue any bird, and imagine that they feed chiefly on rats, frogs, and such ' small 

 deer.' I have seen this species several times in Corfu. I never observed it in summer; and, as 

 far as I could find out, it is a regular winter visitor in Epirus, appearing in that country about 

 the latter end of September, and remaining until the middle or end of March. I never saw one 

 of this species except in or near marshes ; and it is certainly the most tree-loving Eagle with 

 which I am acquainted. It is not, according to my own observation, so common in Acarnania as 

 in Epirus." 



The present species of Spotted Eagle is found throughout Asia Minor ; but Dr. Kriiper did 

 not meet with it breeding there. Mr. Danford informs me that he frequently saw it in the 

 wooded districts near the Black Sea, and it is found in Palestine. Canon Tristram writes (Ibis, 

 1865, p. 251) that he found it "much more common in winter than in summer on the plains." 

 He observed it only two or three times in the Lebanon in spring, and found its nest once, in a 

 tree, between Nazareth and Caiffa. 



