2 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



like the common Harrier, as tlie following interesting infonnation, furnished 

 by Mr. Hari-y Barnard, shows: — His notice was fust attracted by a pair 

 of these fine Haniers examining Magpies' ((j'l/iiniorliina) old nests, and 

 mating. Soon afterwards they commenced building in a silver-leafed iron- 

 bark {Eiicnli/ptns inelanophloia), at intervals extending over six weeks, a 

 nest which at best was only a frail, flat structure lined with leaves. When 

 the clutch reached the number of three, the eggs were taken, the date being 

 the end of September, 1893. Locality : Coomooboolaroo, Queensland. 



Subsequently, on the same rim, Mr. Charles Barnard took another clutch 

 of Spotted Harrier's eggs from a nest about fort}' feet from the ground 

 in a lai-ge bloodwood (Eucalypt). On the other side of the Continent, 

 near the North-west Cape, Mr. Tom Carter tells me in the autumn of 

 1898 he noticed a pair of Spotted Haniers building a nest in a low tree, 

 about ten feet from the ground. Just before shearing, he huniedly 

 visited the place, but not seeing the birds about he concluded the nest 

 was deserted. However, he afterwards discovered two other nests with 

 three eggs and one (half-hatched) respectivelv, and while at Cardabia 

 Creek he found another nest in a white gum, about twenty feet from the 

 ground, viath two half-gi-own voung. Mr. Carter, in a matter-of-fact style, 

 states, " I should have liked to have skinned them, but being on the ' pot 

 hunt,' my native and I only having had a wild cat between us for supper 

 and breakfast, we each ate a young bird for lunch." 



I am indebted to Mr. Carter for a fine pair of eggs dated August 

 17th, 1898. 



On the 18th August, 1896, at the commencement of the Calvert 

 Expedition in Western Aiistralia, Mr. C. F. Wells found a nest of 

 the Spotted Harrier containing two eggs. On the 25th September, 

 Mr. L. A. Wells foimd a second nest, with a pair of eggs slightly 

 incubated. Both nests were situated in gum trees. 



2. — Circus goi'ldi. Bonaparte. — (Sfi) 

 C. nssimilis, Gould. 



HAREIER OR SWAMP HAWK. 



Figiin. — Gould: Birds o( .\ustraUa, foL, vol. i., pi. 26. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds. Brit. Mus., vol. i., p. 72. 



Previous Descriptions of Egf;s. — Gould: Birds of Australia, Handbook, 

 vol. i., p. 59 (i86q); Potts: Trans. New Zealand Inst., vol ii., 

 p. 52 (^1870) : Buller : Birds of New Zealand (1873). also vol. i., 

 p. 212 fiSSS) : North : Austn. Mus. Cat p. 2. pi. 2, fig. 3 fiSSg) ; 

 Campbell: Proc. Austn. Assoc, vol. vi., p. 417 (1895). 



Genijrnphical Bixtrihiition. — Australia and Tasmania, also Lord Howe 

 and Norfolk Islands. New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Fiji Islands. 



Nes:f. — Built of coarse, dr\' herbage — stalks of thistles, dock, &c. ; 

 sometimes of sticks and twigs, and lined with short pieces of hav-like 



