IlIERACIPKA. 283 



tlie south of N'lctoria to Kimlierley in Nortli-western Australia. When feeding their young 

 they are very datiiiL;, ami will seize Pigeons or hall' grown fowls in order to satisfy the cravings 

 of their brood. I once saw one seize a Pigeon which was feeding in front of the Melbourne 

 Town Hall, and after carrying its prey on to a ledge of the clock tower, proceeded to consume 

 it in \iew ot a large crowd of people who had witnessed the capture. These birds occasionally 

 build their own nest, but more frequently utilise a deserted Crow's nest. Near Melbourne I 

 have found their egi;s during October and November. 1 took a set of Crow's eggs from a nest 

 in a Ctniiayiiia on 6th November, 1893, at Werribee, \'ictoria, and fourteen days later found 

 three slightly incubated eggs of the Brown Hawk in the same nest. On \isiting the same nest 

 a fortnight later ] found the Crows had resumed possession and laid three eggs. In Western 

 Australia a pair of these birds were busy feeding three young, in a tall tree near our camp, 

 towards the end of July. Before daybreak the screams of the Hawks were heard as they passed 

 over the camp to and from the nest, and altliough they worked incessantly until long after dark, 

 the young ones were always hungry if the noise they made was an indication of the state of 

 their appetites. During ];inuary, 1S97, they were breeding at the Fitzroy River, Kimberley. 

 They are fond of game, especially Ouaii, and if the grass happens to be set on fire by the natives, 

 these birds immediately come to capture the lizards, mice or jerboas disturbed, and dashing 

 through the smoke picked up a victim." 



I-'rom Broome Hill, Soutli-western Australia, Mr. 'Pom Carter writes as follows; — "By 

 far the commonest lurd of prey in Western .\ustralia is the Brown Hawk ( llicyacidca oiicntalis), 

 being met with from the North-west to Albany, and is of a sluggish or tame disposition. Pairs 

 of them frequently soar round and round at a considerable elevation, uttering their loud querulous 

 cry. Dn one occasion at Point Cloates 1 found the remains of a Brown Hawk and White- 

 headed Sea Eagle (//i!//'i7s/;/r ff/;';-t'«craj, their claws tightly entangled, both birds having fought 

 to the bitter end. The nests are usually built in trees, but at Point Cloates (where there were 

 no trees within about tliiity miles) I have found the eggs laid in the broken tops of the large 

 white-ant hills. Three is the usual clutch of eggs, occasionally four, and on one occasion I 

 found hve eggs in a nest. I have found them on \arious dates between 28th June and ist 

 September. .At Broome Hill I took two young in down, and an addled egg, from the broken 

 top of a White Gum, on 1st November, 190S. There was no nest formed." 



The following information is extracted from notes made by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while 

 resident at Circular Head, Tasmania : — " (_)n the iSth October, 1S87, I took a fresh egg from a 

 nest of Hici-acidi-a ovu-iitalii on Circular Head Peninsula, in the top of a tall Tea-tree, about forty 

 feet from the ground. It was in a scrub, and looked like an old Crow's nest, and was lined with 

 bits of bark. No birds were about it, but the previous day one was seen to feed its mate while 

 on the nest. Two days later I took two more eggs out of the same nest. The bird had slipped 

 off the nest unseen, as the eggs were warm, and I saw her some thirty yards ofl while I was 

 taking them. These birds are common ; their note is a harsh cry not unlike a Black-cheeked 

 Falcon's, but they are not so constantly noisy as that bird. On the i8th October, i88g, I found 

 a nest on Circular Head Peninsula, in the head of a Tea-tree, about twenty-five feet from the 

 ground, and some twenty yards from the nest taken in October, 1887. It contained three haid 

 set eggs. The bird slipped off at once, and did not re-appear while I was there. On the 27th 

 of the same month I found another nest in the top of a tall old Tea-tree, sixty feet or more from 

 the ground, and one of an isolated clump without under-growth, and surrounded by grass-lands, 

 so that the situation was a very exposed one as a breeding place. The bird tlew right away 

 from the nest when the trunk of the tree was struck with a stick, and made no attempt to 

 defend her eggs, which were two in number and about half incubated." While resident near 

 Hobart, in Soutli-eastern Tasmania, Dr. Holden writes: — "On the 22nd November, 1904, on 

 the hill side above Wentworth, Belleri\e, Mr. Harrison climbed to a nest in the top of a tall 



