Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ntriesbordering the Mediterranean to India, and the small islands of Timor and Flores,and being sometimes found in Central Europe. They are usually met with in openplains, living much on the wing, and feeding chiefly on snakes and other reptiles: andin appearance and habits resembling the buzzards, witli which they are connected bythe above-mentioned buzzard-eagles. The common harrier-eagle, represented in theillustration on next page, is one of the smaller members of the group, the females 214 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. measuring 26 inches, against 32 in the largest African species. It is thus ratherlarger than a kite. The general colour of the adult bird is dark brown, with apurplish gloss above, and the head tending to ashy brown, the quills being duskyblack. The tail is pale ashy brown, with a white tip, and three dusky trans-verse bars. Beneath, the colour is white, the throat narrowly streaked with brown,and with a black shaft-stripe to each feather; while the flanks are banded with
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COMMON HARRIER-EAGLE (J nat. Size). widely separated dark bars. The iris is orange-yellow, the cere whitish, the billhorn-coloured at the tip and grey at the base, and the feet pale greyish brown.Jerdon writes that in India this harrier - eagle is spread over all the more openparts of the country, generally avoiding thick jungle and forest. It may often beseen sitting on a low tree, whence it occasionally darts on its quarry ; but itgenerally circles in the air, taking a long and lofty flight, now and then flyingheavily along the ground like a harrier. I have frequently seen it hover in the airlike a kestrel, and drop down on its prey, like a stone, afterwards. It is a rather SERPENT-EA GLES. 215 noisy bird, frequently uttering a wild plaintive scream. I have seen several to-gether occasionally, but it is usually solitary. Its chief food is snakes and lizards,but it will eat anything,—rats, weakly birds, crabs, frogs, centipedes, and largeinsects. I have seen one strike at a wounded

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