irALIASTUU. 



227 



diameter, and built in a strong fork of the dead part of a tree ; both of those I found were about 

 twenty feet from the ground, and about two hundred yards from the beach." 



Dr. E. P. kamsay writes :(—" In almost every instance the nests found by Mr. J. Rainbird 

 were placed near the tops of the larger trees, in belts of Mangrov as skirting the edges of salt- 

 water swamps and marshes in the neighbourhood of Port Denison. They were composed of 

 twigs and dead branches of Mangroves, lined with a finer material. One, from which that 

 gentleman shot the bird, and brought me the eggs upon which she was sitting, was lined with 

 tults of lichen ; and m this instance the eggs were placed on various lish -bones, shells and claws 

 ot crabs, &c. ; the edges and sides were beautifully ornamented with long streamers of bleached 

 seaweed, which gave the nest a novel and pleasing appearance." 



(Jne or two eggs are laid for a sitting, varying from oval to rounded-oval in form, the 

 shell being coarse-grained, lustreless and of a dull white or bluish-white ground colour,' and 

 having fine streaks, scratches, and short wavy hair lines of chestnut or brown; in others the 

 markings consist ot irregular shaped dots, spots and blotches of rich umber-brown, intermingled 

 with a few short streaks, scratches or smears of a paler hue; as a rule they are confined chiefly 

 to the lar-er end of the shell ; some are almost devoid of markings, with the exception of a few 

 almost invisible spots of pale brown. .\ set of two in the Australian Museum Collection, taken 

 by the late ^[r. J. Rainbird at Port Denison, Uueensland, in iSnj, are rounded ovals in form, 

 dull white, with a few indistinct spots and smears of yellowish-brown, principally on the larger 

 end. Length (A) i-yj x 1-58 inches; (B) i-q,j x 1-63 inches. Of two sets collected by 

 Mr. H. Nielson, one set obtained at Cape Palmerston Inlet, south of i\Iackay, on the east coast 

 ol Oueensland, on the 9th September, igoy, from a nest placed on a low Mangrove, only two 

 feet above high water mark, measures :— Length (A) 2-07 x 1-65 inches; (I',) i-^,y x 1-44 inches. 

 Another set of two taken by him from a nest built twenty feet up in a Red Mangrove on Waverley 

 Creek, Broad Sound, near St. Lawrence, Eastern (Jueensland, on the i6th September, 1909, 

 measures:— Length (A) 2-14 x 1-67 inches; (B) 2 x 1-58 inches. The former set, which has 

 been washed, are dull white and have small indistinct dots and spots of faint red and yellowish- 

 brown distributed uniformly over the surface of the shell, except on the smaller end of 

 one; the latter has the dull white shell more or less soiled all over, apparently with the muddy 

 feet of the sitting bird. A set of two taken on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, on the 4th May. 1902, measures : — Length (A) 2-1 x i-66 inches; (B) 2-1 x 

 1-62 inches. .\n egg, the only one in the nest, in Mr. George Savidge's collection, taken near 

 Cooktown, measures: — 2-18 x 1-63 inches. Some varieties of the eggs of this species are not 

 unlike the eggs of the Whistling Eagle (HaUastnv sphaiunis ). 



In Northern Australia this species is an early breeder, the nesting season commencing at 

 the latter end of April, or early in May, and continuing until the end of September. In EZastern 

 Queensland, as may be gleaned from Mr. H. Nielson's notes, it is from .August until the end of 

 October. 



Haliastur sphenurus. 



WHISTLING EAGLE. 

 Miliyis sphentu-Hs, Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., Tom. XX., p. ."")64 (1818). 

 Haliastur sphenurus, Goukl, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. I., pi. 5 (^84^) ; vL, Handbk. Bd.s. Austr., Vol. 



I., p 20(1865): Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. L, p. 31G (1874); id., Hand-1. Bds, 



Vol. I., p. 268 (1899). 



Adult m.\le. — Oeneral colour above brown ivashed with fnlrou^, the feathers of the head aad 

 hind-neck rufous in the centre, and having black shaft lines, as have also the scapulars and feathers 



t Ibis, 1865, p. S3. 



