THE EED GOSHAWK OK BUZZARD 175 



coffee; 1.8 by 1.5 inches. The male Goshawk is very nearly of 

 the same size and colouring as the female Sparrow Hawk, but, 

 as Mr. R. B. Sharpe has pointed out, may be distinguished from 

 it by the longer tail, 8 inches or over, while that of the Sparrow 

 Hawk is a little over 7 inches. 



The Western Goshawk. 



Astur cruenius. 



Confined to Western Australia. 



Very near to the preceding, but with bluer back, and with the 

 rufous cross-bars on the breast narrower, so that the white appears the 

 ground colour. It is a somewhat larger bird. 



It builds a large nest of sticks placed on the horizontal limb 

 of a gum-tree. 



The Sparrow Hawk. 



Accipiter cirrhocephalus. 

 Australia and Tasmania. 



Male, 12.3, female 14.5 inches. In the young the plumage is striated, 

 the longitudinal spots widening out into bars in the adult. 



Handsome, bold and aggressive birds, extremely rapid and 

 graceful in flight, skimming over the surface of the ground, 

 circling in the air or dashing between the branches of _the forest 

 trees, wonderfully sure in aim, whether the quarry be the quail 

 or lizard on the ground or the birds in the trees. The female is 

 much the more powerful, but is not more active or swift than 

 her mate. Even larger birds than itself fall before it. 

 Mr. Keartland heard of one which decapitated a wild duck at a 

 blow, and of another which actually killed a Bustard. 



The nest is large, of dried stick lined with fibres and leaves 

 and placed on the fork of a tree, usually near a river or creek. ' 

 The eggs, 3 in number, are bluish or greenish-white with some- 

 times spots or smears of buff. They measure 1.5 by 1.2 inches. 



The Red Goshawk or Buzzard. 



Erythrotriorchis {JJrospizias) radiatus. 



Eastern and Central Australia. 



Both male and female 20 inches, the latter a little the larger. Above 

 bright rufous, each feather with black centre and rufous margins; below 

 deep rufous; under surface of base of wing ashy white; tail ashy brown 

 above, ashy white below, crossed above and below with blackish-brown 

 bars; iris wood-brown; feet white tinged with lilac; beak purple, flesh- 

 eoloured at base, black at tip. 



