176 Whitlock, Birds on the Pilbarra Goldfteld. [ist^Aprii 



much more scattered than in drier seasons. The value of pure 

 running water for domestic purposes in this hot, arid region, can 

 hardly be over-appreciated. 



I now propose to give a short account of all birds met with 

 during my trip, merely adding that I travelled down the 

 Coongan to its confluence with the de Grey, and, following the 

 latter down for some distance, eventually struck off" to the coast 

 at Condon, with the view of having a week or so in the man- 

 groves at the latter locality. I will only add that the bulk of 

 my ornithological work was accomplished in the months of 

 August, September, and October. 



Wedge-tailed Eagle {Uroaeius auda.x). — Uncommon ; a pair or two 

 seen haunting the most secluded ranges of the upper Coongan valley. 

 Reported to be more numerous on the upper de Grey. I visited one 

 nesting site, and found two old nests and the wreck of the female or a young 

 bird below the more recent. The most remarkable fact about these nests is 

 that in each case I could touch the bottom of the structure with the barrel 

 of my gun without climbing a foot. In each case small gum-trees had been 

 chosen, though there were plenty of larger trees up the gully. 



Little Eagle {Nisaetus inorpJinoidcs). — The favourite haunt of this 

 species is near the permanent pools on the numerous rivers and creeks 

 which are such a feature of the Pilbarra district once the hilly country is 

 reached. 



On the upper Coongan, south of Marble Bar, were several pairs, but each 

 pair seemed to restrict its wanderings within certain limits, and I never 

 observed more than one pair on the wing at the same time. 



This Eagle, once identified, is easily recognized afterwards. Apart from 

 its peculiar cry, the contour of the extended wings is very distinct from 

 that of other birds of prey of the same size. The anterior margin of each 

 wing forms a crescent. In flight, too, the primaries are separated at the 

 tips. 



The cry is a succession of seven rapidly uttered notes on an ascending 

 scale, followed by a shrill and sustained " Pew-u-fi." 



The birds probably pair for life, and one is seldom seen without the 

 pther. It is a wary species, and even at the nest is very difficult to approach 

 closely. 



All of the four nests discovered on the Coongan were built at a con- 

 siderable height, and in each case the most massive eucalypt was chosen. 

 The nests, too, were in every case built on a horizontal branch at some 

 distance from the centre of the tree. The first one I robbed was at a height 

 of 45 feet from the bed of an important tributary of the Coongan. It was a 

 fairly large and well-constructed nest, the foundation consisting of sticks up 

 to an inch or more in diameter. The cup, though shallow, was neatly 

 formed, and lined with green eucalyptus leaves. It contained two fresh 

 eggs. With the exception of trifling nest-stains, these eggs were spotless, 

 and in colour white, with the faintest tinge of green. Whilst I was robbing 

 the nest the parent birds perched on a dead tree some ten chains away, and 

 made no demonstration whatever. As I had observed at a nest in another 

 part of this State, a colony of the Tree-Martin {PetrocJielidoti nigricans) was 

 breeding in a hollow limb of the same tree. Not a hundred yards away, in 

 a little tributary creek, a half-dead gum-tree was standing. In this tree 

 were nests of the Marbled Owl {Ni'nox occllata) and the Western Kestrel 

 {Cerchneis unicolor), and in the bank of the creek at the foot of the tree a 

 female Red-browed Pardalote i^Pardalotus rubricaUis) was sitting on three 

 eggs. 



