The BOLD WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (_Uroaëtos audax_) is three feet one inch
long, and about six feet eight inches broad. The back and sides of the
throat are rust colour, the rest of the body blackish brown. The feathers
of the wings and upper tail-covers are edged and tipped with pale brown.
The eye is yellowish white, the beak is yellowish grey at its root, and
yellow at the extremity; the feet are pale yellow. Another species or
variety is also met with, more slender in form and paler in plumage than
that above described.
The Bold Wedge-tailed Eagles are common throughout Australia, where
they frequent open plains and forests, preferring such localities as
are inhabited by kangaroos. Gould tells us that all that has been said
about the strength, courage, and rapacity of the Tawny Eagle may also
be applied to these birds, whose unremitting attacks upon flocks of
sheep are a cause of constant loss to the colonists; small kangaroos
they destroy in great numbers, but rarely contend with such as are full
grown. Gould also mentions having seen one of these Eagles pursuing a
mother kangaroo with great patience, and watching for the moment when
fatigue would compel her to empty the young from her pouch, and thus
yield them an easy prey. From the same source we learn that they will eat
carrion, and may often be seen perched thirty or forty at a time upon
the carcase of an ox. The eyrie is built upon such high trees as to be
almost inaccessible; in size it varies considerably, as it is enlarged
and repaired from time to time by its owners, who return to the same nest
for many successive years. The outer walls are formed of large boughs,
these again are interwoven with smaller branches, and the interior lined
with leaves and slender twigs. According to Ramsay, the breeding season
is at the end of the summer. The eggs, two in number, are round and rough
shelled, three inches long, and at the thickest part two inches and
three-eighths in diameter; these are white, spotted with red, yellowish
brown, or purple. Many forests contain the remains of large settlements
made by these birds before the white man had penetrated into the interior
of the country. The Bold Wedge-tailed Eagle is often taken young from the
nest by the natives, and when reared exported to Europe.
* * * * *
The HAWK EAGLES (_Pseudaëtos Eudolmaëtos_, or _Asturaëtos_) constitute a
group distinguished by their comparatively short wings, that do not reach
the end of the very long tail, and by their high tarsi, feathered even to
the toes, which are armed with long and broad curved talons; the beak is
long, but powerful.