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to Freyer, it occurs not unfrequently near Idria ; there are also five specimens in the Museum at 

 Laibach. Fiedler speaks of it as rare in Croatia ; but it breeds there. In the Agram Museum 

 there is an old bird, and a nestling only a few days old. 



" In Hungary it is not common. Nagy possesses two killed near Ujlak and Mocsonok (Neutra 

 Comitat), Wagner -shot one on the mountain of Sztyborno a. Poprad, Brusek obtained one in May 

 1868 at Murany, and Schablick one from Veresko. I saw two, obtained in that district, in the 

 collection of Kusmik, a shoemaker, at Eperies. Baron Lobenstein saw it occasionally in Lower 

 Hungary ; Fritsch obtained one from near Weisskirchen ; and Hermann states that he found a 

 nest on the 12th June, 1873, near Bazias, in an oak-forest ; but as he says that the nest contained 

 two young ones, his statement is open to doubt. Von Stetter obtained it near Piski, on the 

 Strell, in Siebenbiirgen ; and, according to Von Czato, a female was shot near Russmarkt on the 

 22nd June, 1862, a male in August 1862 at Koncza, and a third on the 11th June, 1871, at 

 Petroseny. It certainly breeds in that country. According to Count Wodzicki it breeds in 

 Galicia, in the Polish mountains in the Cracow district, and near Olkusch ; and Schauer met 

 with it at Wielka-Porebo." 



Messrs. Elwes and Buckley (Ibis, 1870, p. 70) never obtained a specimen in Bulgaria, but say 

 that they are almost positive that it occurs there ; and M. Alleon found it breeding in the forest 

 of Belgrade. It is very numerous on the Bosphorus during migration. Dr. Kriiper and 

 Mr. Seebohm both inform me that it occurs, though not numerously, in Asia Minor; but 

 Canon Tristram writes (Ibis, 1865, p. 253) that it is " beyond all doubt the most abundant of 

 all the Eagle-tribe in Palestine, from the early spring. In winter it seems to be more scarce, 

 and is probably partially migratory. I observed it in December among the gardens and orange- 

 groves of Sidon ; but did not satisfactorily identify it again till the beginning of March, from 

 which time it overspread the whole country. Being strictly a reptile-eater, it probably with- 

 draws to the Arabian districts for the two or three months during which the lizards and snakes 

 hibernate. In the coast-plains there were abundance of frogs to be found at all seasons ; and 

 the Short-toed Eagle is therefore more accurately described as a wanderer than as a true 

 migrant. It prefers the neighbourhood of woods near the cultivated plains to the truly forest 

 districts. In its breeding-habits it varies, choosing generally some low ledge in a wady, but 

 sometimes also building a great platform of sticks in the top of a large oak or terebinth. The 

 first egg we took was in a wady on Carmel, on March 23rd, quite fresh ; the second in a wady 

 near Heshbon, east of the Dead Sea, on April 30th, equally fresh ; after which we obtained 

 several others, not yet incubated, so late as to the 10th of May. One egg we took was prettily 

 spotted ; all the others were white. On one occasion the sitting bird we shot from the nest was 

 ascertained on dissection to be a male. In Africa I have found two eggs in the nest ; but in 

 Palestine we never found more than one. The Circaetus is a fearless bird, and more easily 

 approached than any other of the large Baptores, sitting composedly on a conspicuous point of 

 rock, or on the top of an isolated tree, till the sportsman is almost within gunshot. I do not 

 know a more magnificent-looking bird as it sits with its great flat head bent down on its 

 shoulders, its huge yellow eyes glaring around, and the bright spotting of its breast and abdomen 

 as distinct as that of a Missel-Thrush. It is very noisy, and always betrays the neighbourhood of 

 its nest by the loud harsh scream with which the male and female vociferously pursue each other, 



