88 SHORT-TOED EAGLE. 
of the genus Circaetus of Vieillot. It is placed by 
Schlegel after the Buzzards, but-I see no reason to 
deviate from ‘Temminck’s arrangement, with the exception — 
of placing it last of the sub-genus Aquila, forming, 
as it does, a natural link between the Eagles and the 
Buzzards, just as F. Bonelli does between the Hawks 
and the Eagles. 
This bird has an extensive range over the Asiatic and 
European continents. In Europe it is found, according 
to Degland, in the Vosges, the Hautes-Alps, the moun- 
tains of the Var and the Hautes-Pyrenées. It is a 
permanent resident of the Dauphiné and Anjou. It 
occurs accidentally in the north of France; rarely in 
Switzerland and Germany, and is included by Count 
Mithle in the Birds of Greece. According to Tem- 
minck it does not occur in Holland, is becoming rare 
in France, and equally so in Belgium and Italy, and 
it is not included in Machado’s list of the Birds of 
Andalusia. 
In the Madras Journal there is an interesting account 
of its habits in that country by Mr. Jerdon, which I 
transcribe from the valuable Catalogue of Birds in the 
East India Company’s Museum, by Mr. Horsfield:— 
“This species is very generally spread over the country. 
It affects chiefly the open plains and patches of cultivated 
ground. It may frequently be observed perched on a 
low tree, or even a bowrie pale, or seated on the bank 
of a river, where it occasionally darts on its prey, but 
generally takes a long and lofty circling flight, or flies 
heavily along but a few yards above the ground. The 
most favourite food of the Samp-mar is, as its Indian 
name implies, snakes. It will however take other food. 
Colonel Sykes found a rat in the stomach of one. I 
saw one strike at a wounded hare, and another make a 
