172 THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA 



The Harrier. 



Circus gouldi. 



South and Eastern Australia to 20° IST. lat., New Zealand, New 

 Caledonia and Fiji. 



Head and all upper surface rich dark brown; facial ruff rufous buff 

 streaked with dark brown; tail ashy grey tipped with white, not barred; 

 under surface creamy white, with pale rufous streaks; legs greenish 

 white, feet yellowish buff; iris yellow; bill dark brown, bluish at base. 

 Not quite as large a bird as the preceding. 



Frequents lagoons, backwaters, swamps and marshes feeding 

 on the smaller mammals, birds and reptiles. Flies with the 

 typical Harrier flight, slowly and heavily, and near the ground. 

 Nest and eggs as in preceding. 



Genus Astur. Goshawks. 



Key to the Species. Adult Plumage. 



No red nape-band. Thighs uniform white. 



Upper surface and tail ashy grey. A. cinereus. 



Whole plumage pure white. A. novse hollandiiB. 



Sides of neck rufous, forming an indistinct and 

 partial nape-band. Under surface and thighs 

 barred with white and rufous. 



Back dull ashy brown. A. approximans. 



Back bluish ashy grey. A. cruentus. 



The Grey Goshawk. 



Astur clams {cinereus). 



Australia and Tasmania. 



The breast is white, with numerous, but indistinct dull ashy bars, 

 which disappear altogether on the abdomen. Length of male 16.5, of 

 female 20 inches. 



The White Goshawk. 



Astur novce-hollandim. 



Australia, south and east, Tasmania. 



For years the White Goshawk was a puzzle to naturalists. 

 It seems extraordinary that a diurnal bird of prey, whose allies 

 are all of varied plumage, should be of so pure a white, the 

 beak only black and the legs and cere yellow. Was it an albino 

 variety of the Grey Goshawk, which has much the same 

 dimensions ? The irides are of a pale carmine. But the bird was 



