249 



Elanus axillaris. 



BLACK-SHoULDKKEL) Kl IK. 

 Fahxi a.riJ/iiris, Lath., liid. Orii., Suppl. J., p. ix. (IsOl). 



El ann:i axillaris, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. I., pi. 2:5 (ISIS); i,l., Haiidbk. I'.ds. Austr., Vol. T., 

 p r.;i (18G.1) ; .Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. I., p. :i-!S (1874) ; i./., Hand!. Bd.s,, Vol. 

 I., p, 270 (is;)'.)). 



Adult m.\li-;. — Gi'itfru,! cohnir aliuve li.ijh/ i/reiy, jialcr mi Iho hind iipck (iml nupe : Irsspr ami 

 median ii-ppi-r wing-coivrt.s black, (he greah-r wing-rorrrf^, srcondarifx, and scapiila.rs liglil gre.ij like 

 the back, the primaries grey icith dark brown shafts, llifir under surface blackish-grry . tail white, the 

 central feathers washed irith grey : feathers above th^ eye black: part of forejiead, sides of face and 

 lu'ck, and all the nndi-r surface and under tail-coverts purr white: under wing-covrrts white, the 

 lonvr ontrr series blackish : bill black: cere yellow : legs and feet yell oiv ; iris red. Total length in. 

 the flesh IS-') inches, n-ing ll-'i, tail iJ- ', bill O-S, tarsus V'l. 



Adult FK.MALE. — Similnr in pluniage to the male. 



Z)i.s7ci//H<iort.— North-western .Vustralia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, X'ictoria, South Australia, Central .\ustralia, Western .Vustralia. 



S pointed out by the late Dr. K. Bowdler Sharpe in his "History of trie Collections 

 contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum,"* Latham's 

 description of this species is founded upon one of Watling's pictures, now in the British Museum, 

 and which becomes the type of Latham's A.xillary Falcon, and ecjuals the FaUo axillaris of 

 Latham's " Index Ornithologicus." 



.\lthou;4h distributed in favourable situations over the greater portion of .Australia, it is 

 seldom observed in the extreme north-western and northern portions of the continent. Nowhere 

 is it so abundantly distributed as the south-eastern parts of Queensland, and the coastal districts 

 of New South Wales. It is nomadic in habits, its appearance generally being governed by the 

 food supply, visiting certain districts for the purposes of breeding, sometimes with unvarying 

 regularity for several seasons in succession, and then being absent again for years. During the 

 breeding season it is usually met with in pairs, but in the inland portions of Queensland and 

 and New South Wales it sometimes appears in vast flocks, following the hordes of field rats 

 and mice that make their appearance in certain districts, the latter being a sure concomitant of 

 the other. In the .\ustralian Museum Collection there is a large number of skins, chiefly from 

 the coastal districts and contiguous mountain ranges of Eastern New South Wales. It is seldom 

 seen now anywhere near Sydney, although there are specimens procured at Petersham in the 

 collection, and it has been found breeding farther afield in the Hawkesbury River District, on 

 the outskitts of the County of Cumberland. It was met with during the journey of the Horn 

 Scientific Expedition in Central Australia, in 181J4, and Mr. Tom Carter, while resident at Point 

 Cloates, and near what may be regarded as the southern boundary of North-western Australia, 

 noted its appearance in great numbers during the great drought of 1S91, many in an 

 emaciated condition ; some were picked up dead, and it was not seen again until 1900. In 

 Queensland, Mr. John Ramsay noted this species breeding for several years on the lindah Estate, 

 Mary River, and where in November, 1877, he succeeded in obtaining a set of three eggs from 

 a nest placed in the topmost forked branches of a Fliiidcvsia, his brother, Dr. E. P. Ramsay, 

 subse(iuently describing this set of eggs at a meeting of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales. 



Hist. Coll, Brit Mus.. Bds., p. no (1906). 



