■26S FALCONING.. 



on a slender leaning branch of a Gum, as near to the top of the tree as possible, sixty feet from 

 the f,'round. The nest was loosely constructed of twites and small branchlets, and lined with 

 fine bark, the egi; cavity being eight inches in diameter and six inches deep; it contained four 

 eggs in an advanced stage of incubation. As with the others, these birds made no attempt to 

 defend their nest, flying round at a respectful distance. L)uring my trip in September, igii, I 

 only came across one pair of these birds ; they had a nest on Valcowinna Creek placed as usual 

 on the topmost branch of a l^ucalyptus ; the nest contained three young birds not long hatched." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me as follows from iVIelbourne, \"ictoria : — " The Grey P^alcon 

 (Falco hypolcHcits) is occasionally met with in Gippsland, but I have only shot two, both of which 

 were in quest of chickens at the farms where I was staying. It is more frequently seen in the 

 West Macdonnell Ranges, Central Australia, than any other part I ha\e visited. Still occasionally 

 pairs may be found right across from North-western Australia to Queensland. Although 

 strongly built they are slow fliers, and are usually seen skimming just over the tops of the 

 Tnoilia tussocks, ready to pounce on any lizards, snakes or small animals such as mice, jerboa 

 or rats. When its wants are supplied it usually perches on the highest branch of a dead 

 tree, where it remains until disturbed or hunger necessitates further exertion. Their nests 

 are built of sticks, and closely resemble those of the Brown Hawk, but their eggs are of a light 

 brown colour." 



From Adelaide, South Australia, Dr. A. M. Morgan writes: — " Falco h\fiilcucns is a rare 

 bird in the southern parts of South Australia. Whilst at Laura 1 had three dead birds brought 

 to me, but did not meet with the bird myself or hear of its nesting there. My brother, Mr. 

 E. R. Morgan, took a clutch of two eggs on 31st July, i^gg, about one hundred and forty miles 

 north-west of Port .\ugusta. The bird cannot be common there, as I did not meet with it on 

 my visit to that district in iqoo." 



They eggs vary from oval to rounded-o\al in form, the shell being comparatively close- 

 grained, dull and lustreless. A set of two taken by Mr. J. 1!. W'hite on the Upper Thomson 

 River, Queensland, are of a reddish-buff ground colour, which is almost obscured l)y numerous 

 freckles, dots and small spots of rich rusty-red, the markings predominating andfoiming an 

 indistinct cap on the larger end of one specimen, and becoming confluent and assuming a reddish- 

 black hue on the smaller end of the other: — Length (A) 2-07 x 1-51 inches; (B) 2 x 1-52 

 inches. A set of two eggs taken by Mr. C. Ernest Cowle at Illaniurta, Central Australia, on the 

 fith September, 1895, are very much paler, having the ground colour of a faint yellowish-bufif, 

 one specimen being sparingly spotted and blotched with slightly darker shades of the ground 

 colour, intermingled with a few larger irregular-shaped and darker markings of buffy-brown ; 

 the other is freckled and spotted and blotched with reddish-brown, which are larger and 

 predominate on the thicker end of the shell : — Length (.\) 2-02 x vh inches ; (B) I'gy x 1-56 

 inches; the latter egg is represented on Plate B. X\T., fig. :3. 



Young males in the moult from immaturity to adult exhibit both stages of plumage, and 

 may be distinguislied by the brownish wasli to the upper wing-coverts and some of the feathers 

 of the back and upper tail-coverts, all of which are broadly margined with ashy-white, the tail 

 feathers are brownish-grey, edged externally with brownish-white, and tipped with pale fulvous, 

 and the darker cross-bars are less distinct ; chin and centre of the throat whitish, with indistinct 

 blackish shaft-lines; on the remainder of the under parts the feathers are pale bluish-grey with 

 narrow black shaft lines, with which are intermingled many white feathers, especially on the 

 lower breast, flanks and thighs, which m addition to the blackish shaft-lines have a short narrow 

 greyish-hlack central streak near the tip: the white axillaries similarly marked, but with two or 

 more lengthened paler streaks, which are confluent on some of the feathers ; under wing-coverts 

 white, their shaft-lines black and having a narrow lanceolate streak of brownish-grey down the 

 centre of the feathers, darker on the outer series. Wing measurement the same as adult, 1 1-5 inches. 



