THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Later again {Emu, Vol. V.> p. 16, 1905), Berney furnished the following 
account : “ Plentiful enough here, whether on the open downs or the timbered 
basalt country, but their numbers vary one time with another, without 
showing any regularity in their coming and going. As an instance of what 
a sheepman would call a bad time, I may mention the experience of 
Hughenden station, previously recorded, where 1,060 were poisoned in eight 
months. On the other hand, there are times when it would be hard to find 
a representative of this grand bird. On the open country, where timber 
worthy of being called trees is absent, they often place their nests in low 
bushes. I have many times been able to ride up alongside the nest and 
ascertain the contents without dismounting. Eagles commence laying at the 
end of May, and the dates of my two latest clutches of eggs are 3rd and 
14th August. The eggs vary greatly, the two forming a clutch often being 
of different types as regards colour and markings. I found a fine pair of 
quite white, in July, 1904, and took them out of the nest without 
getting off my horse ; they were an exceedingly large pair, measuring : 
(1) 3.19 X 2.59, (2) 3.06 x 2.5 inches. It seems curious that, so far as my 
experience goes, only one of the pair of young birds in a rest reaches maturity. 
I have seen many pairs in the down, but I have no record of ever having seen 
more than one feathered youngster at the nest. On mentioning the matter 
to two of my neighbours, they stated their experience was similar. As regards 
Eagles taking their time at nest-building, I can confirm Mr. Chas. Barnard’s 
experience (Campbell, Nests aud Eggs, p. 14). After apparently finishing a 
nest, they sometimes leave it for two or three weeks, and then, returning, add 
more green leaves to the lining and lay straight away. I have been keeping 
the measurement of the spread of the wings of these birds, and the average 
of ten individuals is 6 ft. 5 in., ranging from 6 feet to 7 feet ; this was rather 
disappointing to me, as I had expected bigger results, and I still think I have 
seen birds that would go some inches over 7 feet.” 
In the succeeding volume Berney contributed a further note {Emu, 
Vol. VI., p. 13, 1906), as : “ There have been very few Eagles (Wedge-tailed) 
about here, but the overseer of a station farther down the river (Flinders) told 
me they had been bad where he was, which he attributed to a visitation of 
rats (a mild plague). We had no rats at Spring Valley — never saw one. The 
Eagles were very partial to them — every nest that he examined which was 
occupied by a sitting bird or young was well supplied with rodents. He told 
me that he found between sixty and seventy nests during the past winter 
with either eggs or young, and on my asking him how often he thought both 
youngsters in a nest reached maturity, or at least an age able to fiy, he 
said that seldom both survived, but this year, owing, he thought, to the 
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