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A'ESrS AND EGGS OF AVSTRALIAX BIRDS. 



yext. — Construel«d of sticks and twigs, lined more or less with 

 oucalypt leaves and fibrous bark, and placed usually in the higher forked 

 branches of a lofty tree. Dimensions over all, 40 inches by 30 inches in 

 depth; egg cavity, 14 inches across by 3 inches deep. 



E(jgs.~-C\vi\x\\. two to three ; roundish or round oval in shape ; 

 surface somewhat coarse and lustreless ; colour, soft, wann, or buffy 

 white. Examples in same clutch frequently vary much in character and 

 colour of the markings. One of a pair is richly marked around the upper 

 quarter with blotches and smudges, mostly confluent, of dark reddish- 

 bro\vn, the other being lightly clouded all over (except on either end, which 

 is more spotted) with rufous-brown ; inside lining of the shell 

 yellowish-gi'een. Dimensions in inches ; (1) 2'06 x 1'53, (2) 2'0 x 1-57. 

 (Plate 3.) 



Obxerrafidin. — The two first recorded nests of the Square-tailed Kite 

 were discovered almost simultaneously in November, 1839 — one by Gould 

 himself on the Upper Hunter River, New South Wales ; and the other by 

 his able coadjutor, Gilbert, at the opposite side of the Continent, in 

 Western Australia. In Gould's nest was a pair of eggs, while Gilbert's 

 contained two young ones scarcely feathered. This nest was the usual 

 structure of sticks placed on a horizontal branch of a white gum-tree in 

 a dense forest. 



Six-and-forty years after these illustrious naturalists, I find m.yself 

 wistfully gazing at a Hawk's nest, about seventy feet above me, in a 

 slanting forked branch of a giun-tree. Yes ; and the bird is sitting. 

 A stick thrown half-way up rustles amongst the branches, and away soars 

 a Kite, its square-fashioned tail leaving no doubt as to its identity. 

 Fortunately I am accompanied by Mr. Harry Barnard, and, in almost less 

 time than it takes to write these sentences, he has climbed the tree, and 

 descended with a pair of the most handsomely marked of Hawk s eggs. 

 They are now in my cabinet with date, " Coomooboolaroo, 10th October, 

 1885." I shall never forget that week, for we took no less than five 

 different species of Hawks' nests, each with a pair of beautiful fresh eggs. 

 Tliev were — WliistUng Eagle, Australian Goshawk, Little Falcon. Brown 

 Hawk, and Square-tailed Kite. 



All these birds — indeed, the majority oi the Hawk tribe — will lay 

 again in the same nest if robbed, or use again the pre\ious season's nest, 

 or even exchange nests, as the following Coomooboolaroo note proves ; — 

 " Hawk's nest appropriated as follows : first by a Square-tailed Kite, then 

 by a Brown Haw^k, succeeded b}^ a Sparrow Hawk. ' 



On examining the lining of one of the Kite's nests, Mr. Chas. Barnard 

 found attached to one of the green branchlets a Honey Eater's (PtUatis 

 fu'i(M) nest, containing a half-grown young bird, dead of course. Had the 

 Hawk attacked the Honey Eater for food, or simply broken off the 

 branchlet for nest bviilding? 



The last three months of the year are probably the principal breeding 

 time of the Square-tailed Kite. However, in July (1896), during the 

 early part of the Calvert Expedition, Mr. Keartland observed a nest of 

 tliis Kite containing a fully-fledged young one. 



