WHISTLING EAGLE. 
Australia. So partial, in fact, is the Whistling Eagle to this kind of food, 
that the appearance of one is the certain prelude to the appearance of the 
other. It is generally to be seen in pairs, inhabiting alike the brushes near 
the coast and the forests of the interior of the country. It is incessantly 
hovering over the harbours and sides of rivers and lagoons for any floating 
animal substance that may present itself on the surface of the water 
or be cast on the banks ; and when I visited the colony in 1839, it was 
nowhere more common or more generally to be seen than over the harbour 
of Port Jackson. Its flight is buoyant and easy, and it frequently soars to 
a great altitude, uttering at the same time a shrill whistling cry, from 
which circumstance it has obtained from the colonists the name of the 
Whistling Hawk.” 
Captain S. A. White has provided the following note : “ The Whistling 
Eagle is a very common bird in South Australia, and in the autumn or 
early winter these birds come south in great numbers. I have seen twenty 
or thirty birds sitting in the trees or on the ground round a dead sheep 
waiting till the hide became soft enough to make an entrance. Great 
numbers frequent the large gums (Eucalyptus rostrata) growing on the banks 
of the dry water-courses in the far north at breeding time, and I have seen 
as many as three nests of these birds in the same tree. I have also 
known these birds to nest on my property at the Peed-beds and lay the 
second clutch in the same season ; the first clutch is invariably three, the 
second two. These Eagles seem to prefer carrion to live prey, though I 
have seen them with lizards ; I have, however, never seen them touch a 
live bird.” 
Dr. A. Morgan also states : “ Found in all parts of South Australia. 
I found them especially common at Point Sturt on Lake Alexandrina — in 
the Flinders Ranges near Port Augusta — in the neighbourhood of Mt. 
Gunson and at Kallioota. They are easily recognised in flight by the 
heavy flapping and by the wide separation of the ends of the primaries ; 
the loud whistling note is audible at a distance of half-a-mile or more. 
They feed largely upon rabbits^ where these are procurable, and upon dead 
fish when near lakes or the sea. The nest is built of sticks and lined 
with green leaves or she-oak needles ; a new nest is quite a small structure, 
but the same one is used year after year, a little being added each time 
until it becomes enormous. It is generally placed high up in a gum tree, 
but at Point Sturt, where there are nothing but she-oaks, the largest of 
these was always selected. I also found a nest at Kallioota in a large pine- 
tree and another in a tall black oak (Casuarina sp.). When not breeding, 
the nests are used as feeding platforms, and on and beneath them is 
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