HIKHACIIlKA. 281 



coiii-p.alt'il nifiiiis •i/iofi . hi/I l^nil I'uluiir, ilitrk''r ni llf /i/i nf iijippr iikiiuI ihli' : /'i/s anil f"'t slufi/- 

 ii^lnlf: iris dark ln'mra. I'ulal li'm/lh in, tln'lhs]/ 17 lai'lii's, ii'inij l-l 'i, fail S, hill 1, /firsiis i''i. 



Adi'LT FEMAl.K. — ^iiiii/ar ill pluindije fn lli>' inali\ liul Im-i/rr. ll'iirj li iiirJifs. 



Dislrihuliiin. — Xi)tili-\vestern Australia, Northern Territory of Soutli Australia, Oueensland, 

 New South Wales, X'ictoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. 



AT^\HE ISrown Hawk is generally distributed in favourable situations over tlie continent of 

 J_ Australia, and is likewise found in Tasmania. It is probably the comnninest species 

 of the Order Acciphki.s inhabiting this part of the world. It chielly frequents forest and heath 

 lands, and wide open expanses clothed with lierbage, situations at all times likely to afford it an 

 abundant food supply. Near Sydney it is more often met with on the waste lands about Botany 

 and La Perouse, Long Bay, and soutii of Randwiclc, slowly flying over and e.xamining the 

 co\er beneath, occasionally stopping now and again, and hovering for some seconds, before 

 dropping into concealment, attracted by some reptile or other prospect of obtaining a meal. 



Of the numerous specimens forwarded to the Trustees of the .Vustralian Museum, from 

 widely separated parts of New South Wales, it is worthy of note tliat during a period of twentv- 

 tive years not one has been received on account of its chicken or fowl destroying proclivities, 

 and which more often is the cause of various species of Accipitres being sent to the Institution. 

 Stomachs of specimens examined, procured in the neighbourhood of Sydney, usually contain li/.ards 

 as the staple article of their diet, occasionally the remains of frogs and some of the larger kinds 

 of insects, and rarely small birds. Many writers have recorded the attractions a bush fire has 

 for certain birds of piev, but in none is it better exemplified than in the present species. Gould, 

 too, has pointed out how useful a bird it is in destroying, when it assembles in flocks, the countless 

 myriads of caterpillars and insect pests, gorging themselves with this kind of food until they are 

 too lethargic to tiy when an attempt is made to disturb them. 



Indi\idual variation is very pronounced in the adult and immature stages of plumage of 

 this species. I have adult specimens now before me with the upper and under surface brown, 

 with only the centre of the breast and abdoiuen indistinctly mottled with pale rufous ; others 

 again have the entire throat, breast and abdomen pale creamy-white, with dark brown shaft- 

 stripes, and a paler subterminal streak in the centre. The largest and darkest adult bird in the 

 Australian Museum Collection is a fenrale obtained by Mr. (jeorge Masters, at Gayndah, on 

 the Burnett River, Oueensland, in August, 1870; wing measurement i5'3 inches. Some immature 

 birds are distinguished by a broad creamy-white collar on the hind-neck ; others have the entire 

 plumage of the upper and under surface brownish -black, except narrow indistinct rufous inargins 

 to the scapulars, feathers of the back, rump and upper tail-coverts, the wings and tail being the 

 same as in the adult. 



Mr. Frank IIislop writes me as follows from the Bloomtield River District, North-eastern 

 Queensland : — " The Brown Hawk is generally found in the forest land. I ha\e taken two sets 

 of eggs, one from a nesting place on the top of a fern, which was growing on an Iron wood tree. 

 The fern was about twenty feet from the ground, and the eggs were just laid in a slight hollow in 

 the top, without any nest at all. The other nest I found was in a big dead Tea-tree; a large 

 hollow branch had broken off about two feet from the trunk, and in this the birds had laid. 

 They generally lay three eggs, sometimes four. The birds usually come round about a bush 

 fire and catch grasshoppers, lizards, small rats and mice." 



From Copmanhurst, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge writes me :- -" The Brown 

 Hawk ( Hiei'dcidca oiiiiitalis) is \ery sparingly dispersed throughout the Clarence River District, 

 and I have only in a few instances found its nests and eggs, for it usually appropriates 

 the deserted nest of a Magpie or Crow. It is an early breeder, eg^s being mostly found during 

 August and September." 



71 



