WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (EAGLE-HAWK). 
same when rabbits were flnng to it. This bird, when in that position, worked 
the sharp hook of its bill into the carcass, then with an up-drag tore off the 
flesh. In devouring a lamb, the Eagle broke into its side just behind the 
shoulder, and directly over the heart, lungs, and liver. Having swallowed 
these, the rest of the body was picked over. There is very little flesh on a 
lamb a few days old — in fact, less than is found on a full-grown rabbit — ^and 
our tame bird could easily dispose of the latter in a short time. Concerning 
the weight-carrying powers of a Wedge-tailed Eagle, it was stated one 
attempted to soar off with a rabbit and failed in that effort. Amongst 
birds of prey it is generally held that the female is larger than the male, 
consequently may carry a heavier weight. In my sheep experience, never on 
any occasion have I seen an Eagle try to fly with even a green lamb, and 
at that stage it is very light. It is true there was no absolute necessity to 
make that effort, because lambing falls long before these destructive birds 
commence to nest. It was common enough to see the great creatures 
circling about — apparently for the fun of the thing — ^with the cleaned-up 
skeleton of a lamb in their claws. The aforesaid remains comprised skuU, 
vertebrse, legs, and skin. Wedge-tailed Eagles are not fastidious in their 
appetites, for they will eat the flesh of animals that die from natural causes, 
even when their carcasses have become putrid. This, in my opinion, is the 
reason why strychnine is so fatal to them. My father’s mode of squaring 
accounts with the pest was taking a dead lamb, and removing heart, lungs, 
and liver, cut them into tempting morsels, strewed them around, touched 
each with a dose of the deadly poison. This done, he put strychnine on the 
remains. One day, with my brother, I went off two hundred yards to await 
events. Before the lapse of ten minutes an Eagle settled down. Its first 
proceeding was to bolt the scraps, then, stepping on to the carcass, it began 
to operate upon it. In a short space of time it became ‘ wobbly,’ moved 
a few feet away, and fell prone upon its breast. The pair of us, running 
forward, found it beating the ground with partially extended wings, jn the 
last throes of death. During this same year I witnessed another Eagle’s 
death from strychnine. Three or four were circling leisurely above a grassy 
slope, but how high in the air cannot be said, save that they were beyond 
the range of a shot-gun. All at once one of them, shutting its wings tight, fell 
head foremost like a stone to the earth, and, hurrying across, I found the 
Eagle quite dead. W^hether its life went out with the first contraction of the 
wings, or whether impact with the ground finished it, are points that cannot 
be decided. Some thirty years ago I had the opportunity of a lifetime in 
noting an Eagle making a swoop to capture a hare that was hiding in a bunch 
of tussock grass on our sheep-run. Beyond question it was a magnificent 
109 
