FALCON. 215 



*** NEW HOLLAND, ,^c. 

 144— MOUNTAIN EAGLE. 



Mountain Eagle, Collinses ]Vew South Wales, ii. p. 287. pi. in do. 



THIS bird is described as being of a large size, standing in 

 height about five feet. In the plate it appears to be wholly of a 

 brownish lead-colour, with a wax-coloured cere, reaching to the eye ; 

 the feathers of the crown long enough to form a kind of crest, whicli 

 is rufous yellow at the tip ; ends of the wing coverts dull rufous ; the 

 bill is pale dusky brown ; quills and tail nearly of ecpial lengtlis, the 

 latter pointed ; legs cinereous yellow. 



Said to have been found in Broken Bay, New-Holland, where 

 it was wounded, and secured by Captain Waterhouse, but not known 

 bv the colonists, none of them remembering to have seen it before ; 

 whilst lying at the bottom of a boat, with the legs tied, it is said to 

 have driven the talons through a man's foot ; and was so much an 

 object of wonder and fear, among the natives, that none of them 

 would go near it ; and they asserted, that it would carry olF a middle 

 sized kangaroo ; it lived with them ten days, and would only take 

 food from one person ; after this, it divided the rope it was fastened 

 with, and made its escape. 



A similar bird to the above was three feet in length. Bill deep 

 brown, from the point to the gape three inches ; head smooth ; 

 feathers of the neck sharp pointed, colour brown, with paler edges, 

 and blackish shafts ; back and wings deep brown, marked with a 

 few paler spots on the greater coverts, and second quills; greater 

 quills black, the first five inches longer than the second, the base 

 much marked with white within ; under parts of tlie body, and under 



