THE LITTLE EAGLE 177 



Eagle condescends to the habits of a Vulture when a dead 

 carcass presents itself, even if in a state of putridity, numbers 

 collecting from afar as do the Vultures. Mr. Gould saw no less 

 than thirty or forty assembled together around the carcass of a 

 dead bullock, some gorged to the full, perched upon the 

 neighbouring trees, the rest still in the en.joyment of the feast. 

 Advantage of this habit is taken by sheep owners who wish to 

 destroy the marauders. A dead beast is treated with strychnine, 

 and left to attract the dingoes and eagles, many falling victims 

 to the poison. In Riverina the advent of the lambing season is 

 marked by the regular appearance of Eagles, which are rarely 

 seen at any other time. The pastoralists resort to wholesale 

 poisoning in order to keep them in check, and thousands are 

 said to be destroyed annually, yet they appear the next season 

 as numerous as ever. These must have gathered from great 

 distances, it is supposed from the fastnesses of the remote parts 

 of the Australian Alps, but this is uncertain. These birds 

 destroy many rabbits, and some pastoralists in consequence look 

 on them with favour, and prohibit their destruction. The nests 

 are very large, nearly fiat, built of sticks and boughs, and 

 situated on the most inaccessible trees. It usually requires 

 much skill in climbing, and much courage, in the collector 

 who would win the eggs, for the Eagles will valiantly defend 

 their home from the intruder, fiercely attacking him with their 

 powerful beak and claws. The eggs are two in number, clouded 

 with large blotches of pale-purple, and small specks and dashes 

 of yellowish umber-brown on a stone-coloured ground, and 

 measure 3 inches by 2.4 inches. 



The Little Eagle. 



Eutolmaetus {Nisaetus) morphnoides. 



Probably all over Australia in the interior. 



Length 21.5 inches, wing L5. A much smaller and rarer bird than the 

 preceding. Pace and crown of head blackish-brown, tinged with rufous 

 giving it a striated appearance; back brown; under surface rufous, with 

 a stripe of black down the centre of each feather. 



Mr. Keartland saw several in the Centre. Mr. Cowle obtained 

 the egg from a large stick nest in a desert oak tree (Casuarina) , 

 from which he flushed the bird. Gould found a nest in a hi^h 



