THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



227 



"Leave me alone." — Youni> Brown Hawk. 



[I'lKltl 



On my latest rambles in the Mallee, 

 around the Pink Lakes, Victoria, I 

 found half a score of nests of the Wedge- 

 tailed Eagle. Some were in low trees, 

 others fifty feet up, in " Eelars,"" which 

 are favoured also by White-winged 

 Choughs (Corcorax melanorhamjihus) as 

 sites for their mud-bowl nurseries. 

 Many nests, but all deserted : some had 

 not been used for years. Settlement is 

 driving the Eagle -haAvks into the un- 

 tamed wilderness, where, some day, 

 wheat may grow. 



A FRIENDLY FAMILY. 



Near the settler's home where I 

 eami ed Avith a brother l)ird-observer, 

 in a barn next door to a heap of " cocky 

 chaff '■ a Y'Mv of Brown Hawks (leracidea 

 berigora) had a nest, accessible even to 

 an unskilled climber. Tut we could 

 not contrive to fix the camera safely 

 in the boughs. The three young hawks 

 that filled the nest almost to over- 

 flowing, were well grown, so we elected 



to risk an experiment. The nest, after 

 much hard work with tomahawk and 

 ropes, was lowered, with all its natural 

 supports, to within five feet of the 

 ground. A screen of green branches 

 saved the nestlings from sun-stroke — 

 if hawks are ever injured by solar heat 

 — and they were made quite comfort- 

 able. 



While we were exposing ])lates rather 

 recklessly (they cost money nowadays), 

 one of the parent birds appeared afar. 

 She flew to a tree fifty yards away, and 

 we saw that a lace lizard (or " goanna " 

 as folk will call our monitors) hung 

 limply from her beak. In the rest 

 were the mummified remains of a 

 " stump-tail." So it would seem that 

 lizards are favourite food with these 

 hawks. 



At first, the young hawks were in- 

 clined to be '■ nasty." They took the 

 offensive whenever we came near, and 



