SHORT-TOED EAGLE. 89 



swoop at a teal that was shot. From Mr. Elliot's 'Notes' 

 I take the following: — 'Pounces on snakes and guanas; 

 my Meer Shikar 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 god 

 Chukram under each wing, by which it prevents the 

 snake going forward. In the stomach of one I found 

 a snake about two feet long and a centipede.' " 



Of its habits in Europe the best summary with which 

 I am acquainted is in Degland's "Ornithologie Euro- 

 peenne," which I will give in his own words: — 



"Le Jean-le-Blanc lives in the borders of woods, fre- 

 quenting the underwood. In its manner and carriage it 

 is very like the Common Buzzard, and equally indolent. 

 M. Gerbe saw one attacked by Magpies, but the Eagle 

 remained totally unmoved. In winter, according to M. 

 Bouteille, it lingers near the dwellings of man, on the 

 look-out for poultry, which in this season is its principal 

 food. In the summer and autumn it frequents marshes, 

 and then feeds upon field-mice and lizards. 



M. Tyzenhauz does not agree upon this subject with 

 our friend, for, according to him, the Jean-le-Blanc 

 does not hunt small animals, but grouse, partridges, 

 hares, and barn-door fowls are its favourite prey. If 

 sometimes reptiles have been found in its stomach, it 

 was, according to this naturalist, in consequence of its 

 being forced by hunger to feed upon them. Notwith- 

 standing this assertion, it is, however, certain that it 

 attacks small vertebrate animals, and even insects. M. 

 Gerbe, at two different times, found their stomachs 

 filled with the elytra of beetles." 



The Short-toed Eagle nests not only upon high trees, 

 but according to M. Bouteille, in brushwood and coppices, 



