HAI.l ASTTH. 233 



A nest was found on the 7th Au^;ust, at l£lizabeth Creek, not quite finished, and another at Port 

 Augusta on the 15th August, in a dead Gum, containing newly hatched young. During a trip 

 made to the Gawler Ranges in company with I )r. A. Chenery, in August, 1902, only one bird 

 of this species was seen at Wartaka west. 



" I have met with Haliastnr sphcniirus from Henley Beacli, in the south, to the Elizabeth Creek 

 in the north of South Australia. My first e.xperience of it was about 1883, between Geelong 

 and Oueenscliff, where I took' three eggs from a nest in a high Gum-tree abut fifty feet from the 

 ground, but I do not now remember the exact date. On the i8th .\ugust, i8yi), I went a trip to 

 Point Stmt, on Lake .\lexandrina, and found live nests of this bird. The nests varied greatly in 

 size, for though some of them were scarcely larger than an ordinary sized Magpie's nest, two 

 of them were conspicuous objects at a distance of two miles. I think that when undisturbed the 

 birds add to the nest each year, as the increase in size was vertical rather than horizontal. All 

 these nests were in large Casnariiia trees, and were built of dry sticks, some of them as much as 

 a quarter of an inch in diameter, and were lined with green Casiiai'tna leaves. The big ones 

 were veritable charnel houses of rabbit bones, with here and there the backbone of a fish. I 

 have never seen them fishing, but ha\e often seen them hawking along the shores of the lake, so 

 the fish were probably dead ones, which had been washed up on the shore, but they undoubtedly 

 kill large numbers of rabbits, and never interfere with lambs, so should be cherished by the 

 farmer. The earliest date of breeding in my experience was 7th ,\ugust, lyoo, and the latest 

 24th October I'SqS, when I took two fresh eggs from a nest at the Finniss River." 



Mr. Tom Carter sends me the following notes from Broome Hill, South-western Australia: — 

 '■ The Whistling Ka^^\ii (Iliiliiistnv spliiiiunis) was fairly common inland from J^oint Cloates, North- 

 western .Australia, and I have noticed them about the Swan River, in the south-west. They feed 

 largely on wikl ducks, but one picked up near Point Cloates contained several yellow land crabs 

 in its crop. The nest is usually in the main fork- of a large tree, and the eggs are laid about 

 the middle of July. Two is the usual clutch, but three were once observed in a nest." 



The nest is a large open structure, externally formed of thick sticks and twigs, and is lined 

 inside with Eucalyptus lea\es. It is generally placed on a horizontal, or in a thick upright fork 

 of a tree, and often from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet or more from the ground. 

 When unmolested, however, and the timber is small, it frequently builds low down, sometimes 

 in the crown of a Pine-tree at an altitude of tweKe to twenty feet. Finches and some of 

 the smaller birds often construct their nests underneath those of the Whistling Eagle, and Mr. 

 W. B. Barnard informs me that he has several times found the nests of Pachyicphala ru/iivittris 

 in that position. 



The eggs are usually tw<5, sometimes three in number for a sitting, ranging from rounded 

 o\'al to oval in form, some specimens being somewhat pointed at the smaller end, the shell 

 slightly coarse-grained and as a rule dull and lustreless. They are of a dull white, or faint 

 bluish-white ground colour, which may be stained, mottled, spotted or l)oldly blotched with 

 different shades of brown, reddish-brown or reddish-chestnut. Some have the markings very 

 pale yellowish-brown intermingled with large underlying clouded patches of pale purplish-grey, 

 while specimens may be found which are almost or entirely devoid of marlcings. There seems 

 to be no limit to the character of their markings or the diversity of colour. While some are 

 boldly blotched with reddish-brown, others appear as if they had been marked with the tip of 

 the finger dipped with pale yellowish-brown paint. The eggs of the Whistling finagle are almost 

 as variable in colour and markings as some of the Tern's eggs, and two distinct types are some- 

 times found in the same nest. A set of two taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at Yandembah 

 Station, Lachlan District, New South Wales, on the 24th September, i88g, measures: — Length 

 (A) 2-:')2 X 1-7 inches; (B) 2-26 x i-68 inches. .V set of two taken by Mr. H. G. ESarnard on 

 the 27th March, 1892, at Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, measures ; — Length (A) 2-05 



