Birds of Celebes: Falconidae. 
39 
ments. 
Wing 
Tail 
Tarsus 
Bill 
from cere 
a. (Sarasin Coll.) (J' jav. Loka, S. Cel. 6. X. 95 . . . 
530 
294 
73 
26 
h. (Sarasin Coll.) Q [?] jiiv. Burukan, N. Cel. 20. XL 94 
538 
285 
71 
30 
Small (J* adult (from Legge /^ 5) 
520 
305 
81 
34 
Large Q adult (from Legge /z 5) 
635 
375 
97 
35 
Distribution. India, Ceylon, Bnrmah, Tenasserim, Malacca, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, 
Ternate, Halmabera (fide Legge h 5, Salvador! /^ d), Nias (Nieuwenbuisen & 
V. Bosenberg hl6: In Celebes: — Minahassa (v. Duivenbode & 5, Fischer h 3, 
P. & F. Sarasin h 15); S. Peninsula, Loka (P. & F. Sarasin); (?) Sula (apud 
Gr. B. G-ray, HL. 1869, I, 11). 
Though the locality Sula may very probably be correct, Gr. B. Gray, as Sal- 
vador! has remarked, has never shown his grounds for this indication. 
The remarkable shape of the foot of this Aquiline species is connected 
with something very nnnsnal in its habits. “It subsists”, writes Colonel Legge, 
“as far as can be observed, entirely by bird-nesting, and is not content with 
the eggs and young birds which its keen sight espies among the branches of 
the forest trees, but seizes the nest in its talons, and decamps with it, and 
often examines the contents as it sails lazily along. Furthermore, Mr. Bligh 
informs me that he once found the best part of a bird’s nest in the stomach 
of one of these Eagles which he shot in the Central Province! The long- 
inner claws of this bird seem especially adapted for the work of carrying off 
loose and fragile masses such as the nests of birds”. Their length and straight- 
ness also, it may be added, would enable the bird to let fall a nest, when it has 
done with it, without difficulty and risk of entanglement, — no small consi- 
deration, when it is remembered into what a panic of alarm and rage a wild 
animal is thrown at finding itself clung to by an object from which it tries in 
vain to free itself. It also occasionally carries off large birds, but this may be of 
rare occurrence; a rat in the stomach is noted by Beavan (hi); a rat, a bird’s 
egg and a snake’s egg by Mr. Wray (h9); a snake by Davison (h 8). Tem- 
minck states probably from information of Beinwardt that it eats insects, as 
well as birds and reptiles, In India Jerdon remarks that “doves, and per- 
haps some other birds breed at all times in the year; and it may, perhaps, 
obtain eggs or nestlings at all seasons, by shifting its quarters and varying the 
elevations, if not, it probably may eat reptiles; but of this I cannot speak from 
observation”. 
This Eagle is rare in Celebes and in the other parts of the Malay Archi- 
pelago where it has been found, and we suspect, it occurs only in migration, or 
as a somewhat frequent straggler. It was never met with by Mr. Wallace in 
any island; Meyer never saw it in Celebes, and the only examples recorded 
from there prior to 1894 were two, both immature — one in the Leyden (b 3) 
and the other in the Darmstadt Museum. 
In November 1894, a third example, also young, was obtained by the 
