66 
SPILOENIS SPILOGASTEE. 
halt ; and the two birds now presented a most singular spectacle, standing almost side by side and glaring w ith 
manifest amazement first at me and then at each other — the Owl with his long aigrettes erected and his 
immense yellow orbs staring from beneath them as he angrily snapped his bill ; while the Eagle stood in his 
most defiant attitude, his amber eyes glaring fiercely, and his bushy topknot rising and falling as I approached 
him ! It was a fit tableau for an artist ; but, alas ! was soon spoiled ; and ere many minutes the interesting 
birds were dangling dead from the roof of my bullock-cart. 
The Harrier Eagle may often be met with by the sides of tracks in the northern and eastern jungles, and 
is usually found with a snake dangling in its talons, which has been killed at the open side of the rudely-made 
road. When wounded, it is a very handsome object, placing itself on the defensive with its glaring yellow eyes 
and huge uplifted topknot. 
Serpents are killed by these birds before being carried off, a bite on the neck soon depriving them of life ; 
they may often be seen dangling from their grasp in the air, or hanging dead from their talons when peiched. 
The food I have always found on dissection to be torn in pieces 5 but it is sometimes devoured whole— 
Mr. Holdsworth recording an instance of a Tree-Snake ( Passerita ) , which is the favourite quarry with the 
Serpent-Eagle, being disgorged whole from the stomach of a wounded bird. Lizards and frogs are likewise 
eaten, but not so commonly as snakes. The note of this species is a prolonged and clear scream of three 
syllables, with the accent on the first, and is not unlike that of the Kite-Eagle. 
Layard refers to the “ doleful moanings ” of this bird “ scaring the herd-boy from the tank side, or the 
lonely native threading his way through the jungle.” I myself have never heard these sounds, although the 
species was constantly under my observation for two years in the jungles of the north, haunting sometimes 
the vicinity of my camp from morning to night ; I infer, therefore, that they may be the utterances peculiar 
to the breeding-time, which I was not fortunate enough to hear. 
With his accustomed keen powers of observation he marked the habits of the Harrier-Eagle well, and has 
the following descriptive paragraph of them in the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History : ‘ Concealed 
in the dark foliage of some overhanging tree, it heedlessly marks the smaller frogs approach the grassj margin 
of the pool. Suddenly the large green Bull-Frog (Rana malaharica ) uplifts its head and utters its booming 
call. The Cheela is now all attention ; with outstretched neck it fixes its glaring eyeballs on its desired prey ; 
lower and lower it bends, for the frog, which has now reached the sedges with a croak of triumph, gains a 
log. But a shadow glides over him — in vain he crouches — and his colour becomes a dull brown, so closely 
resembling the log, that human eyes would take him for a knot in the decaying timber ; with noiseless rapidity 
the barred wings pass on, and the log is untenanted. Fast clutched in the talons of his merciless foe, the 
frog is borne to the well-known perch, and a sharp blow on the back of the neck from the bill of the bird 
deprives it of life.” 
In the dry season I have known it to take up its quarters permanently by the side of a small water-hole 
a few square yards in extent, so that it might live on the frogs and snakes which frequented the muddy little 
spot. 
Nidification. — The nest of this Eagle has very seldom been found ; and the eggs I have never been able 
to procure. It breeds in the Western Province in March and April, Mr. MacVicar, ol the Ceylon I ublic 
Works Department, having received a young bird taken from a nest in the Ilewagam Korale in the latter 
month. The nest was described to me as being a large structure of sticks placed in the fork of a tree. 
Layard, who was very fortunate in finding the nests of rare birds, remarks that “ it builds in the recesses 
of the forest on lofty trees. The structure is a mass of sticks piled together and added to year by year. The 
eggs, generally two in number, are 3 inches in length by 2 in diameter, of a dirty chalk- white, minutely 
freckled at the obtuse end with black dots/'’ 
