■JMJ KALCONIN*:. 



mI twigs." While in the party engaged on the survey ot the proposed Trans-continental Railway 

 i.ine, between Western Australia and South Australia, Mr. Gibson forwarded me a photograph 

 of a nest of Umrliis niidax, built in a very low tree on Nullabor Plains, and writes : — " The nest 

 of Aqin'la audax, built in a dead Mulga, and found on the ist of October, 1908, was tenanted by 

 a pair of Brown Hawks and their three small young; a second and somewhat similar nest of 

 A. audax was found during the previous month, taken possession of also by a pair of Brown 

 Hawks and three young ones." 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, rounded oval in form, the shell being compara- 

 tively close-grained, dull and lustreless, the ground colour varying from a pale yellowish-buff to 

 a reddish-white, which is usually almost obscured with numerous small freckles and spots of 

 rich reddish-buff thickly and uniformly distributed over the shell; others have large irregular- 

 shaped pale chestnut-brown blotches intermingled with the freckles and dots sometimes 

 predominating at the larger end, but more often e\enly distributed o\er the surface. Occasionally 

 specimens are found as if the markings had been rubbed off when wet, leaving a blurred 

 appearance, and two types of eggs often occur in the same set. A set of two taken on the 

 i8th October, 1890, by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at W'uidembah Station, in the Lachlan 

 District, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) 1-87 x i-6 inches; (B) 1-95 x i-6 inches; 

 (C) I'Qi X 1-58 inches. Another set taken in the same locality on the 28th October, 1890, 

 measures: — Length (A) 1-97 x 1-59 inches; (B) 1-95 x i-jS inches; (C) vc)6 x 1-58 inches. 

 The latter egg is represented on Plate 13 X\ 1., fig. 6. 



In New South Wales July and the fi\e following months constitutes the usual breeding 

 season, the late Mr. K. H. Bennett having taken fresh eggs at the latter end of August until 

 the end of October. 



Hieracidea orientalis. 



BROWN HAWK. 



Hicraciden herigora (iiec Vig. and Horsf.), (iray, (jen. lids., V<il. L, p. 20 (18-t.J) ; Gould, Handbk. 

 Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 31 (18G.')), 



Irrdchlfa herigora {nee Vig. and Horsf.), Gould, Bds. Austr., t'ol. V^ol. L, pi. 11 {184S). 



Falco herigora oriiu/nHs, Schlegel, Nauni., 185.5, p. 2.54. 



Hieracidea orienfali.^:, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. I., p. 422 (1874) ; ii/ , Hand 1. Bds., Vol. 

 I., p. 276 (1899). 



Adult m.\lk. — General co/oiir ahove brotvn ivilh mirro/r indintinct mnryimt aronml tJie tipn of 

 m,osl of the feathers : those 011 the r)nnp and upper tail-coverts having darker and hroadrr rnfo-as 

 maryi'iis, atidtlie longer coverts also crossed ivilh broken rnfoas hars ; npper ?ving-coverts like the hack, 

 but with paler margins, some of the median and greater series ivifli concealed broken rnfons cross-bars : 

 qn-ills dark brown, their outer ivehs loith a greyish wash, and spnringhj spotted ivilh rnfons near the 

 shaft, except the outer primaries, their inner tcehs broadly notchi-d or toothed irith rnfons, the tips of 

 the outer secondaries having narrow loliitisli margins: head and hiitd-n.rck brown ivith blackish shaft 

 stripes, in some showing more or less tlie fairn centres and the n-/iife hasrs to t/ie feat/iers if the na/>e ; 

 extreme base of the forehead mhitish ; loral bristles and a narroiv line of featliers surroutiding the bare 

 skin around the eye, black; ear-coverts brown with creamy-irhite bases ; centre of the throat and bases 

 of the feathers on the sides of tlic neck creamy-white, and sejiaratril by « bronmish-black moustachial 

 stripe; remainder of the under surface dark hroiDn, mottled with creainy-irhite on the centre of the 

 body; under tail-coverts bro)rn, transversely barred with rreani>/-ir/iitr ; tJiiyhs dark hroirn, u'ith 



