(JVPOICTINIA. n,^ 



It ' " """^' '" '"' '"' ■"^'' ^"^'"'^ '^" ^'- «™-^d -'- distance off, 



and approaches wuh ontstretched nappu,, wings, and the E.nn hastily abandons the nest and 



runs away 1 he Bu..ard then takes quiet possession, and w,th the stone breaks a hole n, the 



s.de of each eg, ,nto wh.ch it inserts its claw and carries them off at leisure. I subsequently 



oport.onsol.nu e,, shells „, the nest of one of these Buzzards, and ,n a nest to which [ 



ectly ascended, wh,ch contamed tw-o youn, ones, I found amongst the ren.au.s of various 



leptiles the shells of a couple of Bustard's ep 



prro-c 



l.ned wuh Lu alyptus leaves. It ,s placed at a n,ore or less greater distance fronr the ..round 



Z: TheT T 1' °' ''' 'T' '" ''' ''-''''■ ''' ^ -'^ ■' '^^^ '-^ ^^- -'^-- -d ^'tC 



Mo ' o 1 " rr "" ''^'"" ''''' ' ^'^^^^ ^^ "^-^'^ '" ^'- neighbourhood of 



August and the young b.rds leave the nest about the beginning of December. I have never 

 the ne t I have never seen them perch on a tree, but have often observed them alight on the 



lodent. In a nest m wh.ch there was a young one, I counted an.ongst the remains of various 

 other anm.als the skus of twenty-one rabb.ts, and in another ne. exaa.ned, from wllh a 



S'rabbrof T ". ""f '' '" '"^' ' '""' ^ ''"'''' '^^^''^'"'^ -' -"•-' -'"--. those 

 of rabbus ptedomma mg. On passmg this nest a few days afterwards I noticed there were two 



young ones m u. The young of this species, when soon after emerging from the shell, are clothed 

 wuhpure wh.te s.lky down, with the excepfon of a crescent-shaped mark beneath the eyes 

 wh>c ,s black. The down resembles that on the young of .V.... ...^;„...., and similar to 



that bird is longer on the head than elsewh " 



'here.' 



Untmg from ^andembah Station, in the Lachlan District, New South Wales, Mr 

 Bennett remarked :-•' On the .oth March, 1890, I observed a pan- of G.poutuua n.Ian.Jn 

 feedmg upon a rabbit, which they had apparently just k.lled. On the : .tlf Septem e , 

 ca^e across an Kn.u's nest containing some eggs, or rather egg shells, the whole havi ^ b L 

 broken mto on the.r s.des and the contents devoured. The stone with which the e^. J/ 

 broken was u. t e nest among the egg shells. The Buzzard must have carr.ed this sto e a lonj 

 distance, as such a thmg could not be found anywhere in the vicinity." 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, while resident at Yandembah Station, writing in iSoi of the 

 disappearance of certain species of birds in the Lower Lachlan District, remarked : : -"' That fine 

 Ivaptorial bird, Oypoutnna mclauostcn.ou, is now becoming rare in this district, where previously 

 It was immensely abundant. In former years examples could be seen on any day, and the nests 

 were to be frequently found. Now months may elapse without a solitary individual bein^ seen • 

 while for a radius of fifty miles 1 do not know of an occupied nest. I am of opinio^n thei; 

 decrease IS due to increase of population in this part of the country, not that the birds have been 

 destroyed, for they are exceedingly shy and wary, and most difficult to shoot, but beinc. so shv 

 they evidently retreat from the presence of man ; another cause is the rapid demolition o^ timber 

 consequent upon increased population. Tm.ber never was plentiful here, being chiefly in the 

 shape of small clumps of a few acres in extent, dotted in long and irregular intervals (often 

 miles between) over the plains. These clumps were the places in which their nests were 

 constructed, and as a rule not more than two or three of the trees in any of the clumps were 

 suitable for the construction of these huge nests, the generality of the trees bemg too small 

 and the branches too weak to sustain the weight. As a natural consequence the larger trees 

 were the nrst to fall before the selector's axe, as affording the largest quantity of timber o 

 fi^ewood^^nd^heb^rd^^ themselves to more secluded 



* Rec Aust. Mus., Vol. I., p. log (iSgi)^ 



