THE BLACK-BREASTED BUZZARD 181 



Mr. Keartland states that as a little girl was picking a bone, 

 while she sat on the doorstep of the house, a Kite swooped down 

 and seized the bone, in the struggle inflicting several wounds on 

 the child's face. It was a constant attendant of the camps of 

 the aborigines, and haunts stockyards and stations, looking to 

 feast on scraps of meat after cattle are killed, and will fearlessly 

 enter the farm-yard of the selector, and play frank havoc 

 amongst the young poultry. Its flight, says Gould, is much less 

 protracted and soaring than that of its European congener; the 

 bird is much more arboreal, skulking about the forest after the 

 manner of the true Buzzards. The usual stick nest is placed 

 high in a tree. The eggs are less round than in most Falconidse, 

 of a warm fleshy-white, moderately blotched with reddish-brown, 

 and with a few bluish-grey blotches appearing as if under the 

 surface of the shell, and measure 2.25 x 1.6 inches. 



The Square-tailed Kite. 



Loplioictinia isura. 



The only representative of the genus, which is confined to Australia, 

 and is not found in the extreme north or extreme south of the continent. 



Length 19 inches, wing 18.1 inches. Above blackish-brown, below 

 rufous; head distinctly crested, dark rufous, streaked with black down 

 the axis of the feathers; bill greyish at base, blackish at tip; feet 

 greyish white; claws black; iris pale yellow. 



A much rarer bird than the preceding, and, notwithstanding 

 the absence of the fork in the tail, a true Kite in all its manners, 

 soaring aloft with great speed and freedom of movement. 

 Gould states that it feeds on caterpillars, reptiles and young 

 birds; Gilbert, in Western Australia, says the food is chiefly 

 birds. Makes the usual stick nest in a high tree; this is lined 

 with leaves and the inner bark of the gum-trees ; the eggs, two 

 in number, buffy-white, freckled or blotched with reddish-brown, 

 and measure 2 x 1.6 inches. 



The Black-breasted Buzzard. 



Gypoictinia melano sternum. 



Interior of Australia generally is the home of this bird, but they are 

 not plentiful anywhere. 



The head and breast are black, the upper parts brown; tail rounded, 

 outer feathers shorter than middle ones; the wings reach to the end of 

 the tail. Total length 24 inches, culmen 2.45, wing 19, tail 8.5, tarsus 2.68. 



