WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (EAGLE-HAWK). 
This bird is both an object of wonder and fear among the natives, for 
it frequently takes up a kangaroo, a dog, or a sheep, and probably they 
have little doubt but that, if driven by hunger and nothing else offered, 
the Mountain Eagle would descend for the purpose of carrying off a native. 
* One taken by Captain Waterhouse while on an excursion by water, 
drove its talons through a seaman’s foot, though it lay at the bottom of 
the boat with its feet tied.” 
It is obvious this account was prepared from the same specimen as 
Collins’, but I cannot reconcile that writer’s statement with Watling’s 
Drawing. Collins wrote of it under March 1800 as a species “ never before 
seen,” but Watling’s Drawing was made long before that date. 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ Very widely distributed over 
South Australia and in some districts very numerous ; the squatter has 
a great grudge against this fine bird, but I am quite sure they do the 
landowner a great deal more good than harm, for they destroy thousands 
of rabbits to an occasional weakly lamb. They are very cunning birds 
and seem to know directly a person is armed. They nest during August, 
September and October, and often rear two broods in the season. The 
second clutch of eggs is always very pale in colour and mostly consists 
of a single egg. The nest is a large bulky structure of large sticks, some- 
times placed in almost inaccessible places, but other times in quite a small 
tree not far from the ground. One pair of birds if not disturbed will 
renovate the same nest for many years. Just before the female lays the 
first egg she places a few green gum boughs in the nest with the leaves 
towards the centre. I have never known any clutches of three, invariably 
two or one.” 
Dr. A. Morgan expresses the same sentiments as he states : “ Common 
throughout South Australia, an occasional pair being seen within seven miles 
of Adelaide in the Mount Morgan range, though they no longer breed there. 
They feed upon carrion (they are not all particular about their food being 
fresh), rabbits and small marsupials. They have a bad reputation as iamb- 
kiUers, but I am very doubtful if it is deserved ; that they eat dead lambs 
is undoubted, but I only know of one instance in which an eagle has been 
actually seen to attack a live lamb. They occasionally carry off poultry if 
they find them far enough away from the homestead. The nest is a huge 
mass of sticks up to inches in diameter : it is generally placed high up in 
the largest tree available, but in districts where there are no large trees they 
choose any one which is strong enough to bear the weight of the nest. In the 
Gawler Ranges in August, 1902, Dr. Cheney and myself found a nest the 
bottom of which could be reached, and in July, 1900, I found a nest at 
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