572 LORD LILFORD ON RAPTORIAL BIRDS IN THE LILFORD AVIARIES. 
dashes downwards nearly to the ground, and makes off at great 
speed. The mournful wail of this Eagle Avas one of the most 
frequent of bird notes in the Pine Avoods of Avhich I am treating, 
Avhere from the nature of the country small birds are comparatively 
scarce. We found this Eagle common in the neighbourhood of 
Aranjuez in ISTew Castile, Avhere there are no Pine Avoods. The 
nests in that neighbourhood Avere generally built very high, in Plane 
or White Poplar trees. In the magnificent Pine forests on the 
northern side of the Sierra de Guadarrama in Old Castile, this 
Eagle is abundant, and Ave found several nests in May and June, 
1865. The Booted Eagle is a great destroyer of Partridges and 
Quails, Avhich it takes on Aving and from the ground, and is 
altogether a bold and dashing Itaptor, very different in habits and 
style from the Kites and Buzzards Avhich abound in most of tlie 
Avooded portions of Spain. I met Avith this species occasionally in 
Algeria, and I knoAv of several instances of its occurrence and 
breeding in France, Avhere it is hoAVcver by no means a common 
bird. 
The next bird that calls for notice at my hands is the Serpent, or 
Short-toed Eagle {CirraetuH i/a/licus), of Avhich I have at various 
times had several alive at Lilford, from Spain and klogador, and 
one from the Crimea. The only one noAV alive in my possession 
Avas bought last year from a London dealer, and said to have been 
received from the second locality above named. This is another of 
Eagles that never seem to do Avell for any length of time in 
captivity, probably on account of the difficulty in supplying the 
natural food, i.e. Beptiles. During the Avinter months, the birds 
of this species that I have kept fed readily upon small fishes and 
Frogs, and Avould also eat the flesh of Babbits and birds, but ahvays 
appeared to have a difficulty in plucking fur or feathers. They are 
smgularly stolid, sluggish birds, and inclined to sit in one spot for 
hours together, after the fashion of Owls in daylight. The cry is 
a feeble twitter. My falconer lately Avrote, that the Serpent Eagle, 
noAV at Lilford, never seemed to have any idea of taking shelter in 
the heaviest falls of snoAv or rain Avith Avhich Ave have been 
indulged during the past Avinter, and would only leave his perch 
Avhen driven from it by one of the Kites, Buzzards, or Egyptian 
Vultures that share the yard Avith him. This bird is common in 
the districts in Southern Spain that I have described in treating of 
