272 FALCONING, 



process of incubation. The bird, on leaving the nest, ttew riuickly away, and did not appear 

 again. Mr. McLennan and I revisited the nest early next morning, the female again being 

 flushed from the nest and the male from an adjacent tree. As before they flew away, making 

 no attempt to defend their home, and did not again put in an appearance. Mr. McLennan paid 

 a flying visit to the nest nearly a fortnight later, when he found the bird still sitting on the one 

 egg." 



From Melbourne, \'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland sends nie the following notes: — " My first 

 specimen of the Black Falcon (Falco subiiifrer) was shot many years ago at Heidelberg. It is 

 occasionally seen near Melbourne and at Bacchus Marsh. In Central Australia these birds frequent 

 the rocky gorges of the MacDonnell Range, where they prey upon the small marsupials and 

 reptiles so common in the spinifex. They are very wild and swift in their movements. Their 

 nests are similar to those of Hieracidea herigora. In July, 1896, during the journey of the Calvert 

 Expedition, I saw a nest of this species in a Cork-bark tree, near Lake Way, Western Australia, 

 containing a young bird, and in January, 1897, several others were noted in the tall Eucalypti 

 near the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia." 



A set of three eggs in the Australian Museum Collection, taken by the late Mr. K. H. 

 Bennett at Mossgiel, on the 27th September, 1884, are oval in form, the shell being fairly smooth, 

 close-grained and almost lustreless. Two of them are of a faint reddish-buff ground colour, almost 

 obscured by numerous uniformly distributed freckles and spots of a richer shade of the ground 

 colour, with here and there others of a still darker hue ; the other has the yellowish-buff ground 

 colour thickly freckled all over with faint reddish-brown, the markings being larger and darker 

 on the smaller end, where they are confluent, forming there an irregular zone ; also a small 

 indistinct cap ; there are a few small darker blotches on the larger end. These eggs more closely 

 resemble in colour those of Falco Iiypoleiicus, and are not rounded in form or so rich in colour as 

 typical eggs of F. !iu'laiW!:;ci!ys. They measure as follows: — Length (A) 2-13 x 1-62 inches; 

 (B) 2-14 X i-6i inches, this egg is figured on Plate B. X\'I., fig. 2 ; (C) 2-2 x 1-57 inches. 



Falco lunulatus. 



WHITE-FRONTED FALCON. 



Falco Innidatiis, Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl. II., p. xiii. (1801) ; Gould, Handbk. Bd.9. Austr., Vol. I., 

 p. 29 (18G5) ; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. I., p. .iths (1874); id., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. 

 I., p. 27.5 (1899). 



Falco frontatiif:, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. I., pi. 10 (1818). 



Adult male. — General colour above dark slaty-hhie iritli hlnckish shaft lines, beinff sliffhtly paler 

 on thertiinp and upper tail-cot-erts ; scapulars and upper winif-coverts like the back, the ynedian series of 

 th,e latter iviih blackish centres; the lesser coi^erts greyish-black ; primaries dark broirn, slightly rvashed 

 ■iiuth grey, llcir i-nuer webs ivith rufous bars in the centre ; secuiiduries like the back, mid similarly 

 barred ivi/h rufous on their inner wbs, and margined arnu,nd their tips iritli greyish-?cliite, except the 

 innermost ones : tail-feathers bluish-grey, crossed u'ith blackish-brou-n bands, their tip/s u'hitish, tvashed 

 ntith rufous more strongly iiear the sliafts, the inner icehs of all but t/ic cmlffil pair barred uith nifons, 

 and which extends on to the outer webs of the penidtimate. feather ; cruirn of the head aud nape 

 blackish-browu, washed unth bluish-grey, the bases of the nape feathers more or less rufous; lores 

 whitish ■ sides of the head and ear-core.rts broiruisli-blaek : tliroat a'lid sides of the neck ic/iite, the 

 former slightly and the latter strongly u:as/ied U'it/i rufous ; remainder of tlie binder surface piale 

 rufous, with, -narrow blackish sh,afl streaks on the fore-neck, aud undenvuy out into dark bluish-grey 

 sagittate markings on the lon-er breast, where many of the feathers of the breast have a rust-coloured 



