pie, detached woods, cheenas, and scrubs Interspersed with large trees. 
About such localities It prowls with a slow though buoyant flight, being 
chiefly about in the mornings and afternoons, and searches the ground for 
Its favourite food, the large Calotes lizard. When satisfied with the re¬ 
sult of Its excursions It perches on solitary dead trees or exposed limbs or 
others in the forest, and enlivens the wilds with Its complaining cry, which 
may be likened to kre-kre-kre-kreee, kre-kre-kreee, quickly repeated, and 
continued to a wearisome extent. This is, however, t'he cry of the young or 
immature bird, and developes In the'adult into a prolonged note in a diffe¬ 
rent key. In which the accent is laid on the second syllable, resembling the 
sounds kre-kreee-kre-kre. This is as invariably the voice of the brown, 
dark,marked birds, as the former is of the light plumaged individuals. 
Of the lovely cheenas of the Eastern Province, studded with blackened 
trees and stumps, and scantily covered with a straggling crop of “Kurrakani 
(Eleuslne Indica), or a few wild cucumbers, this eagle forms a marked charao 
teristle; perched motionless on the limb of a tall tree, it remains for a 
long time piping out its monotonous cry, which is perhaps answered from ano¬ 
ther cheena a little distance off. At such times it is seated bolt upright 
on one leg, with the other drawn up beneath its breast plumes, its crest 
erect and its eyes staring proudly before it; and so regardless is it of all 
around that it may be easily approached in the open from behind to within ea¬ 
sy shot. 
It is a bold and courageous bird in its disposition, as is amply testifi¬ 
ed when it is kept in confinement, but as regards its prey it captures no¬ 
thing larger than jungle fowl, squirrels, and other small mammals, and feeds 
more on lizardk than anything else. It is exceedingly active and quick 
sighted, and rarely misses anything on which it pounces. It is quite ca¬ 
pable of capturing a bird on the wing, and in the Kandy district it is often 
shot carrying off poultry from the planters* bungalows; In the villages or 
the Vannl it also commits considerable havoc in the sawe way about the hou¬ 
ses of the natives. Layard, in his notes, speaks of one darting at a woun¬ 
ded sparrow hawk which he had tied to a post in the verandah of his bunga¬ 
low. Its flight is not as a rule, swift, but performed with steady flap¬ 
ping of the wings; it rarely soars, but when it does, mounts in quick small 
circles for a short time, and then flies off at a tangent. 
The habits and dispositions of birds of prey are well observed when they 
are in confinement; It may not therefore be out of place to subjoin here a 
short account of one of these eagles which I reared from the nest, and had 
