ciiicus. 183 



large grass tussock amon.n logs and green herbage, witli water all around. It was well in the 

 middle of the swamp, which is thickly studded with high tea-trees. The nest was about two 

 feet and a half across, and the inner lined portion a foot in diameter, and contained two eggs ; 

 also the hind leg of a hare. I had climbed to the top of a tree to e.xamine a Crow's nest, when 

 the Harrier flew off hernest. Ijoth of the Harriers flew overhead while I was taking the eggs, 

 in evident anxiety, but uttered no noise. In November, 1891, four eggs of this species were 

 taken in a swampy place near (ireenhills, and the bird shot. On the 13th November, 1904, I 

 found a nest among rushes in a lagoon near the Derwent River, in South-eastern Tasmania. 

 The nest was well out in the centre of the bed of rushes, which occupies near the whole of one 

 end of it. This nest was outwardly formed of dry sticks, briars and pieces of bark, some as long 

 as a man's arm, the interior was cup-shaped, and tidily lined with dry grasses, and measured 

 about a foot in diameter. It contained four eggs, and the bird sat very close, but flew right away 

 in silence when flushed." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson sent me a note that his brother, the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, of Evandale, 

 Tasmania, has taken eggs, which are five or six in number for a sitting, from the ist November 

 to the I St December, and that about Evandale and other parts of the midlands Cii'cus f^oiildi 

 builds in wheat fields. 



Cii'iiis ^oiddi is very numerous in South Australia. At the Finniss River, fifty miles south-east 

 of Adelaide. Dr. A. M. Morgan found four nests all in reeds. The nests were built chiefly of a kind 

 of sword grass, and lined with broken bits of dead bull-rushes. They were supported by the 

 reeds, and measured about two feet six inches in diameter. At the " Reed-beds," about seven 

 miles from .Adelaide, Mr. \V. White found it breeding on several occasions, and sent me two 

 eggs taken in October, 1883, from a nest built among lucerne. From Tasmania Dr. L. Holden 

 sent me a set of two incubated eggs taken by him at Circular Head on the 23rd December, 

 1893, from a nest he found in long grass in a meadow, and without bushes or water near it. 



The eggs are usually three, occasionally only two, and not infrei^uently four or five, and 

 rarely six in number for a sitting ; the higher numbers are not uncommon in South Australia and 

 Tasmania. In Victoria I saw a set of five eggs in Mr. Chas. French, Junr.'s, collection, taken 

 by Air. G. E. Shepherd, at Somerville. Usually they are rounded-oval in form, but ellipses are 

 sometimes found; they are a uniform dull or a very faint bluish-white, the inner surface of the 

 shell green; rather rough shelled or finely granulate, and usually less nest-stained than are tliose 

 of the preceding species ; some are entirely lustreless, others have a slight gloss. .\ set of two 

 taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at Yandembah Station, New South Wales, on the 15th 

 September, 1889, measures : — Length (A) 1-97 x 1-5 inches; (B) i'95 x i-~,^ inches. A set 

 of two talcen by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, at Circular Head, Tasmania, on the 23rd December, 

 1S93, measures : — Length (.\) 1-94 x 1-55 inches; (B)2-07 x 1-53 inches. Incubation was in 

 an advanced stage in both of these sets, although each contained but two eggs. A set of three 

 taken by Mr. G. E. Shepherd, at Somerville, Victoria, on the 29th October, 1893, measures : — 

 Length (.\) 1-87 x 1-58 inches; (B) 1-92 x 1-52 inches; (C) fgb x 1-49 inches. 



Young birds are dark chocolate-brown above, the upper wing-coverts and primary-coverts 

 narrowly edged at the tips with rufous-buff, upper tail-coverts dark brown tipped with rufous, 

 tiie secondaries with pale buff ; tail-featliers dark brown slightly washed with rufous; feathers 

 of the nape white at the base, and centred at the tip with dark chocolate-brown, the remainder 

 of the apical portion of the feather reddish-fulvous; all the under surface chocolate-brown, with 

 a blackish-brown shaft-streak. Wing 15 inches. A very richly-coloured specimen from 

 \'ictoria is almost uniform dark chocolate-brown above and below, the thighs alone being of a 

 pale chocolate-brown hue. Wing i5'5 inches. 



The breeding season usually commences early in September, and continues until the end of 

 January. 



