12 KECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



lectors or correspondents from whom the specimens were obtained 

 and whose names will be found prefixed to each description. 



Falco melanogenys, Gould. Black-cheeked Falcon. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 8, p. 26. 



Regarding the additional information on the breeding habits 

 of Falco melanogenys, the most courageous of all our Raptorial 

 birds, I am indebted to Dr. L. Holden, of Circular Head, and 

 Mr. E. D. Atkinson, of Table Cape, North-west Tasmania. From 

 the former gentleman's notes kindly sent me I have extracted the 

 following : — 



"On the 10th of September, 1887, Mr. E. D. Atkinson, took 

 two fresh eggs of this species on a ledge of cliffs between Sister's 

 Hill and Boat Harbour." "On the 4th of October, 1888, I 

 found a nesting place of the Black-cheeked Falcon on the cliffs 

 that bound Sister's Beach on the South-east, it was the same place 

 that Mr. Atkinson obtained his nest on the 10th of September, 

 1887. The eggs were three in number and hard set, but could be 

 blown, and laid on the rock without any nest, the ledge being but 

 some ten or twelve feet from the base of the cliff, and was quite 

 easily reached by a zigzag approach scarcely to be called a climb, 

 the projecting rocks forming an easy stairway." Dr. Holden 

 visited the same place on the 26th of September, 1889, but there 

 were no eggs. On the 30th of September, 1891, he writes as 

 follows : — " I took a clutch of Falcon's eggs last Saturday, the 

 26th inst., from the same spot to an inch which I robbed in 1888. 

 It is not bare rock where the eggs were found, there is a covering 

 of grit and detritus. In more frequented spots these birds take 

 care to breed in as inaccessible places as possible, and although 

 in Tasmania the Black-cheeked Falcons are numerous, their eggs 

 are usually unattainable." 



The above set of eggs are typical eggs of this species, they are 

 in form rounded ovals, the isabelline ground colour of which is 

 almost obscured by minute freckles, dots, spots, and irregular 

 shaped blotches of deep reddish-brown ; in one instance these 

 markings are evenly dispersed over the surface of the shell, in 

 the others they become confluent, forming a cap on the larger 

 end in one specimen, and on the smaller end in another. Length 

 (A) 2-12 X 1-65 inch ; (B) 247 x 1-65 inch ; (C) 2-18 x 1-67 inch. 



This bird usually breeds on the rocky cliffs of the coast in the 

 vicinity of which it is more frequently found, but the late 

 Mr. Kenric Harold Bennett obtained the eggs of this Falcon for 

 several seasons on Mt. Manara, an isolated rocky prominence 

 rising out of a plain in the Western District of New South Wales. 



In favourable situations, with the exception of the Northern 

 and North-eastern portions of the Continent, this species is found 

 all over Australia. 



