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Genus CIRCAETUS. 



Aquila apud Brisson, Orn. i. p. 443 (1760). 



Falco apud Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 295 (1788). 



Accipiter apud Pallas, Zoogr. Eosso-As. i. p. 354 (1811). 



Circaetus, Vieillot, Analyse, p. 23 (1816). 



Circceetus apud Vigors, Zool. Journ. i. p. 322 (1825). 



Buteo apud Savi, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 27 (1827). 



Circaetos apud C. L. Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 36 (1831). 



This genus contains five species, four of which are restricted to the Ethiopian Region, whereas 

 the fifth, Circaetus gallicus, is found in the Palsearctic Region, ranging over the whole of the 

 Indian peninsula into Timor and Flores. 



In habits the Short-toed Eagles assimilate closely with the Buzzards, being rather heavy, 

 sluggish birds, possessing but little of the spirit of the true Eagles ; but in captivity they are wild 

 and untamable. On the wing they resemble the Buzzards, but appear rather stronger in their 

 flight. They feed chiefly on reptiles and fish, more especially on snakes and lizards, and but 

 seldom on small mammals and birds. They breed in trees, constructing a tolerably large nest 

 of twigs and branches, which they frequently line with green leaves. Only one, large, white egg 

 is deposited, which is rather rough in surface of shell. Occasionally they breed in cliffs, and 

 then construct their nest in a bush or small tree ; but as a rule they nest in large trees. 



Circaetus gallicus, the type of the genus, has the bill stout, strong, decurved from the base, 

 the cutting-edge of the upper mandible widening at the base ; nostrils oblong, oblique, placed in 

 the anterior part of the cere, slightly covered with stiff bristles; wings rather long, but not 

 reaching to the end of the tail, the first quill about equal to the seventh, the second rather 

 shorter than the fifth, the fourth longest, the first four quills deeply notched on the inner web ; 

 tail moderate, nearly even ; tarsus rather long, this and the feet covered with rough roundish 

 scales ; toes stout ; claws strong, curved, acute. 



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