569 



the base of the nest touching the gi-ound. According to Hartlaub it has been obtained in 

 Senegal ; but it is possible that it may not have been the present but some allied species. 



To the eastward it is found through Central Asia to Northern China. According to 

 SevertzofF it occurs throughout the southern portion of Turkestan during the summer, and 

 breeds at an altitude of from 1000 to 8000 feet in the Thian-Shan and Karatau Mountains. 

 It is also, he says, met with on the Susamir, Son-kul, Chatir-kul, Aris, and the lower part of 

 the Syr-Darja rivers. Dr. Jerdon (B. of I. i. p. 76) says that it is spread all over India in 

 suitable localities; and other authors on Indian ornithology confirm this. Mr. A. O. Hume 

 (Rough Notes, p. 217) says that "it lays in the plains of Upper India in January, February, 

 and March, and, according to Mr. R. Thompson, in April and May in the Gurhwal forests." 



Pere David says that he once saw a specimen which had been obtained near Peking, in 

 Northern China ; but Mr. Swinhoe assures me that it could not have been the present species 

 that was seen by Pere David, and he thinks it may very possibly have been Spizaetos orientalis. 

 Professor Schlegel, however, states that there is a specimen in the Leyden Museum which was 

 obtained on the Island of Timor in February 1829. 



In its habits the present species bears much closer affinity to the Buzzards than the true 

 Eagles. It is a heavy, rather sluggish bird, and seems to have but little of the fierceness of 

 the Eagle ; but in captivity it is wild and untamable, and never appears to become in the least 

 degree reconciled to confinement. On the wing it bears some resemblance to a Buzzard, but 

 may be distinguished by its white underparts. I have only seen it in a wild state in Styria, 

 where, in company with the late Mr. Seidensacher, I obtained its egg in 1866 a few miles from 

 the town of Cilli, and frequently saw the old bird sailing in circles round the tree on which the 

 nest was built, but at a considerable altitude, uttering every now and then a plaintive, rather 

 wild cry. It feeds on lizards, snakes, and small amphibians, and possibly to some extent on fish. 

 Dr. Jerdon writes that in India it will eat any thing — rats, weakly birds, crabs, frogs, centipedes, 

 and large insects — and he has seen it strike at a wounded hare, and that it will occasionally carry 

 off a wounded Teal or Duck. Mr. Elliot, whom he 'quotes in his catalogue, writes that it 

 " pounces on snakes and guanas [Monitor). My Meer Shikaree has seen them on the ground 

 with their claws on the snake's head, its body coiled round the bird's wings, in which state the 

 herd-boys sometimes kill them. The Yerklees say it has a figure of the gods' chuckram under 

 each wing, by which it prevents the snake going forward." Lord Lilford writes to me that it 

 "has a slow, flapping, somewhat owlish flight, but in fine weather may be observed soaring at a 

 great elevation, with outspread and apparently motionless wings. I never observed this Eagle in 

 pursuit of any bird or small mammal ; it appears to feed principally, if not entirely, on reptiles 

 and (I believe) fish. In the crops of two shot from their nests in the Coto de Donana in May 

 1872 we found nothing but the remains of snakes (Tropidonotus tessellatus, Giinther, and 

 Ccelopeltis lacertina, Wagler) ; lizards also form a large part of the diet of these Eagles." His 

 Lordship had a bird alive which was sent to him from the Crimea, and whose favourite food 

 was fish. 



The Short-toed Eagle is a tree breeder, usually placing its nest at a considerable altitude in 

 a tree standing somewhat clear from the rest ; but sometimes, in rocky places, it is built on a bush 

 or low tree close to the ground. The only nest I have seen in situ was the one near Cilli, which 



