34 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



swampy places, where it may at all times find an abundant 

 supply of lizards, frogs, and newts, to which are added 

 young birds, insects, cater j)illars, and carrion. As its small 

 legs, compact body, and lengthened pointed wings would 

 indicate, it flies with ease, making long sweeps and beautiful 

 curves, which are often performed near the ground. The 

 smaller size of this bird renders it a somewhat less formidable 

 enemy to the denizens of the farm-yard than the Brown 

 Hawk ; still considerable vigilance on the part of the stock- 

 keepers is necessary to check its depredations among the 

 broods of poultry, ducks, &c. 



The months of September and October constitute the breed- 

 ing season ; and the nest, which is formed of dried sticks, is 

 usually built in thickly foliaged trees, sometimes near the 

 ground, but more frequently on the topmost branches of the 

 highest Eucalypti. The eggs, which are two, three, or four in 

 number, differ very much in their markings, rich brown per- 

 vading the surface in some more than others : those in my col- 

 lection measure two inches long by one and a half broad. Mr. 

 White, of the Reed Beds, near Adelaide, kindly sent me some 

 eggs of this species, accompanied by the following note : — 

 " The nest is usually composed of sticks, and lined with leaves ; 

 the eggs, generally four in number, vary in intensity of colour, 

 but differ in little or nothing from those of R. Beriyora." 



Crown of the head, back, and scapularies rusty brown, Avith 

 a narrow stripe of black down the centre ; rump deep rusty 

 brown, crossed by broad bands of dark brown, the tip of each 

 feather buffy white ; wings very dark brown ; the inner webs 

 of the primaries with a series of large spots, assuming the 

 form of bars of a deep rusty brown near the shaft, and fading 

 into buffy white on the margin ; wing-coverts tipped with 

 rusty red ; spurious wing with a row of rusty spots on either 

 side of the shaft ; tail dark brown, crossed by numerous broad 

 irregular bars of rusty red, and tipped with pale buff; ear- 

 coverts and a stripe running down from the angle of the lower 



