53 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



in the month of November, was of a large size, built exteriorly 

 of sticks, and lined with leaves and the inner bark of the gum- 

 trees : it contained two eggs, the ground-coloiu' of which was 

 buffy white ; one was faintly freckled with rufous, becoming 

 much deeper at the smaller end, while the other was very 

 largely blotched with reddish brown ; they were somewhat 

 round in form, one inch and eleven lines long by one inch and 

 seven lines broad. 



In his notes from Western Australia, Gilbert remarks that 

 it is there " always found in thickly wooded places. Its flight 

 at times is rapid, and it soars high for a great length of time. 

 I found a nest on the 10th of November, 1839 ; it contained 

 two young ones scarcely feathered, and was formed of sticks 

 on a lofty horizontal branch of a white gum-tree, in a dense 

 forest about four miles to the eastward of the Avon. I have 

 not observed it in the lowlands, but it appears to be tolerably 

 abundant in the interior. The stomach is membranous and 

 very capacious : the food mostly birds." 



Forehead and space over the eye buffy white, each feather 

 tipped and marked down the shaft with black ; crown of the 

 head, back and sides of the neck, throat, shoulders, both above 

 and beneath, and the under surface generally reddish orange ; 

 the feathers on the crown and the back of the head, like those 

 of the forehead, marked longitudinally and tipped with black ; 

 but in no part are these markings so widely spread as on the 

 chest, whence they suddenly diminish, and are altogether lost 

 on the abdomen, the uniformity of which, particularly on the 

 flanks, is broken by obscure transverse bands of a lighter 

 colour ; upper part of the back and scapularies deep blackish 

 brown ; tips of the primaries on the upper surface dark brown, 

 obscurely banded with black ; internal web of the basal portion 

 of the primaries, together with the stem and under surface ge- 

 nerally, greyish white ; secondaries dark brown banded with 

 black, the remainder of the wing light brown, the edges of the 

 feathers being still lighter ; rump and upper tail-coverts white. 



