104 Legge, a Neiv Raptor for Tasmania. [^^^ 



Emu 

 Oct. 



of its adversaries. Gradually widening them without a beat of 

 the wing, the Buzzard moved out in a north-easterly direction 

 towards the forest-clad ranges of the East Coast, until he was 

 lost to view. 



The question arose at once — from whence and by what migratory 

 path had this new visitant come to Tasmania ? The true 

 Buzzards and our aberrant Australian form are denizens of forests, 

 both on mountain and plain. It is therefore probable that the 

 newcomer, under the influence of the frequent north-easterly 

 winds of last spring, took flight from the Gippsland forests across 

 Bass Strait to the Flinders Island ranges. Once in that locality, 

 it is an easy advance for a bird of powerful wing to the forest-clad 

 region of Cape Portland, and thence southward to the " wilderness " 

 of hills and gorges which unite with the East Coast ranges, thickly 

 clad with forest. An alternative route would have been from the 

 Otway Forest to King Island and across to the North Coast. 

 There the country rises rapidly to the Great Central Plateau of 

 Tasmania, which would tend to preclude a further wandering to 

 the south or east. 



To ornithologists who are given to studying the Accipitres, 

 the Black-breasted Buzzard is an interesting species. The wide 

 range that it is now known to possess since the publication of 

 Messrs. Campbell and Barnard's exhaustive paper on "The Birds 

 of North Queensland" has been but slowly added to during the 

 long years from Gould's day until now. This is doubtless due 

 to its being, like the true Buzzards, a forest-loving species, and 

 consequently difficult of observation. Its great eastern habitat, 

 the mountain forests of Eastern Victoria, New South Wales, and 

 Queensland, is extended by the above-quoted paper to the 

 Northern Territory. From the coast brushes, where Gould pro- 

 cured it, the Buzzard probably, in the breeding season, sallies 

 westward into the great timber land beyond the Dividing Ranges 

 on its bird-egging depredations. There it would breed in isolated 

 forests, coming as it did under A. J. Campbell's far-reaching 

 observations. Its powerful flight . will carry it thence westward 

 to the Macdonell Ranges, where it is also probably resident, as 

 these ranges would help as a connecting link to the Western Aus- 

 trahan woodlands, where Gilbert found it. From there north 

 the intervening forest land in the Kimberley province will form 

 another link in its range to the Northern Territory. 



The most noteworthy feature in the interesting hfe-history of 

 this species is that, added to its ordinary reptilian diet, it has a 

 daring habit, combined with much " sagacity and cunning," of 

 robbing birds of their eggs, as an addition to its larder. As this 

 fact may not be known to readers of The Emu who have not had 

 an opportunity of reference to our standard works, it may be well 

 to recapitulate some of the evidence relating to the exploits of 

 the robber. It was first heard of from the aborigines, and dis- 

 believed. Why that should be so is not plain to the writer, for no 

 one who has studied the ethnology of the Austrahan aborigine 



