I50 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



invariably, or anything like it, the winners in these 

 games of skill, and I have frequently seen them miss 

 their stoop. The nest of this bird is made on the 

 most inaccessible rocks and ledges, and at great 

 altitudes ; and I was too busily engaged in shooting 

 and other matters to essay the break-neck pastime 

 of searching for one. 



The Senegal eagle, coo vogel of the Boers 

 {Aquila senegalla), was another familiar eagle with us. 

 In size it is nearly on a par with the last-named, 

 though a trifle smaller, measuring in length about 

 two feet eight inches, and is a determined and 

 dreaded foe to young antelopes and weakly and 

 young sheep or goats. We almost always saw these 

 eagles when out shooting, and I believe that on 

 the Karroo plains — where I have also seen them 

 frequently — they constantly accompany hunters, and 

 even pick up wounded game birds. 



One of my friends shot a specimen of this eagle. 

 In colour it is a rich rufous brown, darkening 

 towards the tail and wings ; the toes, cere, and 

 irides are yellow, the legs amply feathered, and the 

 beak black. Mr. Layard speaks of the tameness, 

 when in confinement, of a specimen of this bird, 

 afterwards sent by him to the Zoological Gardens, 

 and of the probability, from its habits, of its being 

 trained into a good hunting eagle. Undoubtedly, 

 from the keen interest it takes in hunting parties, 

 and its amenity to semi-domestication, this is 

 possible ; and the Senegal eagle might be developed 

 into as useful a hunting eagle as the " bearcoot " 

 of the Khirghiz Tartars. The "bearcoot" is 

 employed in Asia for hunting deer, wolves, a,nd 

 foxes, and, if well trained, was, according to Pallas, 



