Mr. S. Bligh on Kiener’s Hawk-eagle. 299 
XXXIII .—Note on Kiener’s Hawk-eagle. By Samuel Bligh. 
(Communicated by John Henry Gurney.) 
[As Lophotriorchis kieneri is one of the rarer of the 
eastern Hawk-eagles, the following particulars extracted 
from a letter received from my friend Mr. Samuel Bligh are, 
I think, worthy of record.—J. H. G.] 
“ I spent the month of February at Kotmalie (Ceylon) 
with my friend Mr. Master, on whose estate, just twelve 
years ago, I shot an adult male of Lophotriorchis kieneri, the 
first ever recorded as having been obtained in Ceylon. 
a For two or three months previous to my visit, Mr. Master 
had often written to me that he was much troubled by an 
Eagle which, two or three times a week, would play havoc 
amongst his Pigeons, rarely missing a week in coming and 
in securing a Pigeon. 
“ Mr. Master had shot at the Eagle, but had failed to do 
more than frighten it. 
“ The day after I arrived it put in an appearance, and 
tbe poor Pigeons, a flock of sixty or seventy, seemed quite 
bewildered with the Eagle circling above them and waiting 
on them, till they were fairly terrified, when it would make 
a heavy awkward stoop and clutch the nearest Pigeon; it 
did not come within fair gun-shot, but I fired to save the 
Pigeon, and distinctly saw that the Eagle was hit. 
“ Three days later it was there again; I saw that it was 
gaining elevation for a stoop, waited, and the Pigeons keeping 
low this time, I dropped it as it was nearing the flock, and it 
fell almost at my feet quite dead. It proved to be an adult 
female of L. kieneri; very like the male which I shot twelve 
years before, but larger, weighing 2J lbs.* I found that it 
was the same bird that I had shot at two days before, as 
fresh wounds were plain upon the legs, and on skinning it I 
found that a thigh-bone had also been hurt long ago, but 
was well healed; its crop contained the fresh remains of a 
Palumhus torringtonice.” 
* [The male previously obtained by Mr. Bligh weighed If lb.— 
J. H. G.j 
