WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (EAGLE-HAWK). 
Mr. H. L. White’s notes, from Belltrees, Scone, N.S.W., read : “ The 
Eagle-Hawk {Urocetus avdax) is fairly numerous, but not in such numbers as 
formerly. Some thirty-five years ago, when the system of shepherding was 
abandoned in favour of paddocking sheep, Eagles were a great curse at 
lambing-time. The ewes were allowed to run, practically unattended, in 
very large paddocks, and the Eagles levied a heavy toll upon the lambs. I 
know of an instance where a boundary rider shot or poisoned one hundred 
and twenty Eagles in eight weeks ; probably as many more died unnoticed. 
After some twenty years of war against them, their numbers were so reduced 
that the damage done became practically nil. At the present time their 
destruction is not encouraged, as the value of the few lambs they kill is more 
than balanced by the numbers of young marsupials, hares, etc., they destroy. 
I have found the Eagle to be a stupid, quiet bird, very inquisitive and usually 
easily approached. Upon one occasion, when rolling a large stone down the 
side of a steep mountain, I heard a rushing sound pass overhead and noticed 
a dark object, with almost incredible speed, foUow the stone until a patch of 
thick timber was reached, when a sudden opening of the wing revealed an 
Eagle. The bird had evidently been attracted by the moving stone^ and 
shot after it with closed wings. Upon another occasion an Eagle seized and 
attempted to carry off a full-grown fox-terrier that was following me. Nests 
are frequently met with, usually in the highest trees, growing on sides of 
mountain spurs. I know of one nest which has been in use for twenty-five 
years, but whether occupied regularly every year I am unable to say ; off 
and on during the time mentioned I have noticed young birds in it. In 1908 
I wanted the eggs, but found a pair of newly-hatched young instead. Eagles’ 
eggs present a great variety of colouring, those in my collection ranging from 
heavily-blotched to dirty white specimens. A similar experience^ with regard 
to the dog attack and stone-chasing episode, befell the Rev. J. Milne Curran 
at Mt. Kosciusko, as related in the same place by North. A further excerpt 
from the pen of Mr. Robert Grant, taxidermist of the Australian Museum, 
is here given : ‘ In November, 1883, while on a collecting trip at Colliburi 
Station, Narromine, N.S.W., Mr. Stevenson, one of the proprietors^ pointed 
out a Wedge-tailed Eagle’s nest in a large Gum-tree close to the river, and 
told me that it contained young, as he had noticed the birds carrying food 
to the nest. As I was anxious to secure both parent birds and young, I was 
up at sunrise next morning, and placed myself in concealment within gun-shot 
of the tree. Although I waited there three hours neither of the parent birds 
came near, and I left for camp, one of my companions relieving me. We 
watched in turn all that day and the next, with the same result, and then 
decided to cut down the tree, as it was hopeless to attempt to climb to the nest. 
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