w 



FALCIlN'INyt;. 



...'/:./. — Xorth-western Australia, Northern Tenitory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 'uii Wall---. South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia. 



Ill II I l,U tliere are one or two species of " iJrown " lla\vi< inhabiting; .\ustralia has 

 i"ii, pu/zled Ornithologists, (lould held the opinion that there were two species, one 

 astern, the other the western portion of the continent, inosculating in South 

 .a tainly specimens may be foiuid a-reeing very well with the two birds represented 

 Ml of the Birds of Australia under the names ol Icracidca herii^ora and I.OiCidaitahs. 

 ;ui' of Birds in the British Museum," the late Dr. It. B. Sharpe shares (Mould's 

 ul Ml d'scribing Ilicracidca hcrigvi-d remarks: -" 'J'he possession by the Museum of the 

 '•ii.aii il l\j'' - ■: lluracidi-a hcyii^ora, which were received from tlie Linnean Society, enables me 

 r. iHii.i- III a ilir Ilicracidca occidcnialis of Gould is the true H. Ivrigora. Both these species are 

 \ri\ ilisiiiK I. aiie from the other, in their adult and in their young plumages." Messrs. Vigors 

 and I l< ii ^ii'Ul. m describing Falco hcrif^ora in the "Transactions of the Linnean Society of 

 Li.iuliii, ' niiiark: — " The native name of this bird, which we have adopted as its specific 

 iia n. . I - ■ I k-rigora.' It is called by the settlers 'Orange-speckled Hawk.' Mr. Caley informs 

 a- I la; ilir orange marks in the plumage of this species are considerably stronger in recent 

 -|n I laitiis than in those of the Society's collection, which are much faded. 'Ihe specific 

 1 laia' t.-rs of this bird accord very closely with those of Dr. Latham's 'Cream-bellied Falcon,' 

 I ai iiiat bird is described as having a double tooth to its bill, while ours are singly-toothed as in 

 ilir j./nuine Falcons." Caley lived at I'arramatta, fifteen miles from Sydney, during the early 

 ila\ - of settlement of New South Wales, and his specimens were doubtless, as was the greater 

 pal I of his birds, collected in the neighbourhood. L>r. Sharpe pro\-ing that Gould's //. occidcnialis 

 IS I he true H. Ijci-iffora, does away with tlie hitter's idea that one was representative of the other 

 ill opposite sides of the continent. In the " Report of the Expedition to Bellenden-Ker Itange," J 

 North-eastern Queensland, Mr. C. \V. De Vis, M.A., remarks as follows under " Birds of which 

 specimens were obtained " : — " Ilicracidca bcrigora, W'^ors and Horsfield, the Brown Hawk: I 

 find no constant difference of colouring, and no real distinction of locality lietween this and the 

 so-called Eastern Brown Hawk, //. onentnlis, Schlegel. Birds with the colouring of each and 

 interrnediate grades thereof, occur all over Queensland, and during the expedition were seen in 

 company on the Mulgrave Plains ; the name H. oriciitalis, applied to our Queensland bird, 

 should therefore be allowed to lapse." With a series of o\er thirty specimens from different 

 parts of the continent and Tasmania, it would have much simplified my labours to have picked 

 out examples agreeing with botli of those described and figured forms, and referred to them as 

 distinct species, but one cannot shut ones eyes to the fact that intermediate forms occur 

 containing the characters of both, and that light and dark forms occur in the same locality, and 

 may be met with together. There is, however, a greater preponderance of adult birds with the 

 dark brown upper parts with the feathers more or less margined with rufous, and the under 

 parts brown, with the throat, fore-neck and centre of the breast more or less pale creamy-buff, 

 and in some mottled with brown or rufous and brown, and certainly in these stages of plumage 

 they have been found breeding. Specimens from King George's Sound, Western Australia and 

 Derby, North-western Australia, are rufous-brown above with distinct blackish shaft lines, with 

 the under surface white washed with rufous, which is more distinct on the sides of the body ; 

 thighs rufous, and are smaller than eastern birds. Wing of adult male specimen from King 

 George's Sound ii inches; of adult male from Derby 12-5 inches. Much paler rufous-brown 

 with paler thighs and almost entire white under surface, with narrow dark brown shaft lines to 

 the feathers, is an adult female shot at the nest by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, and labelled 

 " Hieracidea occidcnialis, Yandembah Station, Lachlan District, New South Wales. Sex female." 

 This specimen has the whole of the throat, breast and abdomen almost pure white, and another 



* Cat Bds. Brit. Mus.. Vol. I., p. 421 (1S75). t Trans. Linn. Soc , Vol XV., 1S5 (1826). J P. 84 (1SS8). 



