162 la vaillant's natural history. 



blishment for fishing. That he habitually feeds upon his fish in the 

 same places, is not difficult to perceive, by the masses of fish heads and 

 bones which are there met with. Among these remains I have noticed 

 the bones of gazelles, which proves, that he makes them his prey like- 

 wise. He disdains, it would appear, to make war on birds 3 for I never 

 found any remains of them in the heaps which I have just mentioned ; 

 but I have often distinguished those of a species of lizard, which is very 

 common in several rivers of Africa. 



I have taken the name of vociferous eagle from the habit which these 

 eagles have of uttering loud and frequent cries, in different tones, and 

 of answering each other from a very great distance, when perched upon 

 rocks which border on the sea, or upon the trunk of a tree, lying on 

 the sand-bank of a river. While carrying on this sort of conversation, 

 they make extraordinary motions with the neck and head, showing 

 that it costs them very great exertion. These cries always discover 

 them ; but it is, notwithstanding, very difficult to get near enough to 

 shoot them. In order to do this, I was obliged to have a hole dug, 

 and covered over with a mat, over which I directed some earth to be 

 strewed ; and in this ambuscade I passed three whole days, close to 

 the trunk of a tree, upon which a pair of these eagles used generally 

 to come to devour their prey. They deserted the spot as long as the 

 earth which was placed over me had a fresh appearance, and different 

 from that which is dried by the heat of the sun. At the expiration of 

 the third day, I shot the female, and as may be seen in the history of 

 my travels, it nearly cost me my life to go and seek her on the other side 

 of the Queur-Boom on which she had fallen. I resolved to pass the river 

 during the high tide water, and was not able to swim over it; and but 

 for the stratagem which I adopted I should probably have quitted Africa 

 without enjoying the pleasure of possessing a bird of such rare beauty. 

 The male, in search of his female, was killed near the camp, as he was 

 devouring the remains of a buffalo, which I had directed to be thrown 

 there for the purpose of attracting carnivorous birds. 



[The original narrative of this interesting exploit, runs thus.] " The 

 wish to procure a specimen of this eagle, more than once put my 

 patience to the proof, and had like to have cost me very dear. Every 

 day, I saw the bird hovering over my camp, but at such a distance, 

 that it could not be reached by a ball. I made a person always keep 

 watch, and never lose sight of it, and I constantly observed its motions. 

 Having one day crossed the Queur Boom, while walking along the 

 bank opposite to that on which my camp stood, I perceived a number 



