LITTLE EAGLE. 
(almost white) on the abdomen, pale rusty-brown on sides of chest and 
flanks, a stripe of blackish-brown down centre of each feather ; the sexes and 
individuals of the same sex also differ greatly in size. A small male in the 
Dobroyde Collection measures : total length 16.5 inches ; bill from fore-head 
along the culmen 1.4, from cere along culmen 1.2, from cere to tip 1.1; 
wing 13, tail 7.8, tarsus 2.3. A female in the Australian Museum, total 
length 22 inches, wing 15.85, tail 9.8, bill 1.4, culmen 1.7, tarsus 2.8.” 
Howe {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 229, 1910), in the Mallee, Victoria, noted : 
“When working along a pine ridge on the 3rd October, my attention was 
attracted by calls very like those of the Stone Plover, and on approaching 
the spot I flushed one of these fine birds from the ground. The nest, with 
the female sitting, was found close by in a Murray pine about 25 feet up and 
contained a fresh egg. A week later it was again looked at and the egg 
taken : the female was again flushed.” 
This bird does not seem to be uncommon in the Eegion of the Barrier 
Eange from Macgillivray’s notes {Emu, Vol. X., 1910), thus : “ p. 18. A few 
yards more tramping along the sandy bed brought us to a nest of the Little 
Eagle, situate in a gum-tree. The nest had been partly blown out of position 
by a storm and built up again to a height of 2 feet. ... p. 20. A pair of 
Little Eagles had a nest ready for occupation in a tree near our camp. ... 
Another Little Eagle was flushed, and flapped slowly away from a nest high 
up as usual, to which she had evidently been putting the finishing touches. 
. . , In a tree near by a Little Eagle had nearly finished a nest. Unlike 
the WTiistling Eagle, this species has little chance of re-occupying an old nest, 
as the site usually chosen, a slender limb at the top of a tree, does not tend to 
its survival from year to year in a region where winds are high and frequent. 
. . . p. 22. Several pairs of Little Eagles were also noticed among the trees 
or flying overhead. ... p. 23. In the next tree a Little Eagle was building. 
. . . p. 29. A Little Eagle was disturbed from a newly-finished nest. . . . 
p. 100. A Little Eagle flew from a nest high up in a gum (two egg§). . . . 
p. 102. Two Little Eagles’ nests contained one and two eggs respectively.” 
In the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., no. 1, Vol. III., North again has a good 
account, and the first I quote is Macgillivray’s writing as confirmation of the 
above : “ The Little Eagle is found quite commonly along all the creeks which 
intersect the open country (Broken Hill, N.S.W.). It is a quiet and inoffensive 
bird, subsisting almost wholly upon rabbits now that that rodent has displaced 
all the smaller native animals. It is not easily alarmed, and sitting in a tree 
will allow of a close inspection, but on too close an approach flaps slowly 
away. It is often seen soaring high in the air, especially on a fine summer’s 
day : the wings then are not outstretched to the same extent as those of the 
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