426 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
In some instances the eggs were covered with branchlets or nest 
debris, showing the birds’ caution in not leaving their eggs exposed 
when the owners are absent. The nests, Gould had opportunities o£ 
observing, were placed on the most inaccessible trees. Although 
during the months of August and September he repeatedly shot birds 
from their aeries in which there were eggs, he was unable to obtain 
them, no one but the aboriginals being capable of ascending such trees. 
But during, the year 1864 Gould received his first fine egg from 
Mr. George French Angas, of South xAustralia. Dr. Ramsay, writing 
to the Ibis , 1863, says — “The first eggs I obtained were taken in 
August, 1860, and were given to me by Mr. James Ramsay, at Card- 
ington, a station on the Bell River, near Molong. They were taken 
from a nest by a blackboy who had ‘stepped’ the tree. The nest was 
placed upon a fork near the end of one of the main branches of a large 
eucalyptus. It was fully 70 feet from the ground, and no easy task to 
get to it. The structure was about 3\ feet high by 4 or 5 broad, and 
about 18 inches deep, lined with tufts of grass and with down plucked 
from the breasts of the birds, upon which the eggs were placed.” 
The following are valuable notes received from correspondents 
with reference to the nesting of the Wedge-tailed Eagle: — 
Mr. Hermann Lau (South Queensland) states : “ The eggs are two 
in number. A cartload of various dry sticks from the thickness of one’s 
arm and downwards, lined inside with animal hair and grass, constitutes 
the nest. The eagle builds early in June, carrying the material iu its 
talons. Situation, sometimes 50 feet from the ground in a thick fork 
of a large tree. Once I sent my blackfellow up to secure eggs, when 
the eagle swooped down on him, took his felt hat from his head, and 
with it soared nearly out of sight into the sky. After a while the hat 
fell to the ground none the worse. The eggs were secured.” 
Mr. James G. McDougall (South Australia) writes: “The eagle 
breeds in the mallee and she- oak ( Casuarina ) scrub of the uninhabited 
south-west portion, where I have seen their nests and eggs. The nest 
is made of thick sticks piled together in a slovenly fashion till the 
entire structure would form a good load for a cart.” 
From Mr. Tom Carter (North-west Australia) we learn: “The 
Wedge-tailed Eagles’ nests I have seen on the Gascoyne coast were 
on bushes about five feet high, there being no trees near the coast. 
Two eggs were taken 2nd June.” The young in down are of snowy 
whiteness. A nest examined by a local oologist in Tasmania con- 
tained, besides a pair of pure white eaglets, two rabbits, one opossum, 
and a lamb, all much decomposed. The following newspaper clipping 
is a fitting couplet to the foregoing : — “ Mr. Percy Thomas, boundary 
rider for Mr. J. K. Phillips, of Rifle Downs, Victoria, felled a tree 
in which was an eagle’s nest. When examined, the nest was found 
to contain two eaglets; also two kangaroo rats, two opossums, and 
seven rabbits, all slightly pecked.” 
An observing friend on the Paroo, New South AVales, noticed 
an eagle’s nest that had been used for nine successive seasons, but 
whether it was occupied by the same pair of birds could not be 
ascertained. 
To conclude our nesting observations on the Wedge-tailed Eagle I 
may mention that collectors not uufrequently find underneath and 
adjoining these large nests a nest of the vellow-rumped tomtit 
