550 



6 



him in a moment; the bird, even if only slightly wounded, and flying more or less well, 

 when the Eagle takes up the chase, drops at once into the water. Down swoops the Eagle, 

 its long legs extended to the utmost ; and just as his claws are within a yard of the victim's 

 head down dives the Goose, only to rise when its pursuer has swept past. Round comes the 

 Ringtail again, down dives the Goose. Again and again these manoeuvres are repeated ; and at 

 last either the Eagle gives up the chase, or the Goose (and this I think is most generally the 

 case), diving a little too slowly, gets caught by the long legs (which are each time dashed out 

 their whole length in the water) before it has got deep enough down ; and the Eagle then flies 

 slowly to the shore, bearing its prey in its talons. A Grey Goose will weigh on the average 7 lb. 

 (much heavier are recorded) ; but I have repeatedly seen good-sized Grey Geese carried off in the 

 claws of one of these Eagles, the bird flying slowly and low over the surface of the water, but still 

 quite steadily. Once, many years ago, one of these birds procured me a fine fish for breakfast. 

 Standing on the high clay cliff on the Meerut side of the river, at Baghput, on the Jumna, a little 

 above the ghat, I saw one of these Eagles capture a fish so large that the bird only with great 

 difficulty succeeded in reaching a low sandbank, in the river, with its prey. As it flew to this 

 bank it flew so low and with such difficulty that the writhing fish in its claws struck the water 

 every few yards, and twice seemed likely to pull its persecutor under water. At last, however, 

 the sand, some 250 yards from where I stood, was reached. Directly the shore was gained I 

 fired a heavy rifle at the Eagle, the bullet passing just above it. For a minute it struggled to 

 rise again with the fish ; but a second bullet, closer still, compelled it to rise without the fish ; and 

 though it circled round above, uttering its shrill scream, to be joined in a few minutes by its 

 mate, they neither of them ventured down, and a boatman crossed and brought the spoil over to 

 me. This was a roohoo (Cyprinus rohita), and weighed 131b. 2oz.,and was perfectly uninjured, 

 except a gash at the back of the head, four deep claw wounds on the back of the neck, and four 

 more about halfway down the back. I have often tried this plan since, but never with success, 

 the captured fish in every other case having proved light enough for the bird to fly away with 

 when shot at." 



I am indebted to Mr. W. E. Brooks for eggs of this Eagle, taken by him in N.W. India, all 

 of which are pure white in colour, and rather smoother in texture of shell than those of the 

 Imperial and Spotted Eagles. In size they vary from 2f-jj by 2^ inch to 2f § by 2^g- inch. 



The specimen figured is an adult male from Sarepta, on the Lower Volga, in my own 

 collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 

 a, 6 ad. Sarepta {Dr. Stader). 



E Mus. Brit. Reg. 

 a, ad. Behar. b,juv. Nepaul (B. H. Hodgson). c,pull. India. 



E Mus. H. B. Tristram. 



a,juv. Burrampootra, India, April 1863 (E. Langlands). 



