THE OSPKEY 187 



smoke of bush fires, watching for the tenants of the forest 

 cruelly ejected by the flames. The nests are as large as that of 

 a Crow, and placed usually aloft in the trees, composed of sticks 

 and lined with bark and leaves, and containing from two to four 

 eggs. These are more oval than with the generality of Falcons, 

 buff-white with blotches and freckles of reddish-brown, very 

 irregularly disposed, so that the eggs of the same clutch may 

 be quite different in their markings. They measure 2.1 x 1.5 

 inches. 



Mr. C. French, junr., describes finding a nest of the 

 Chestnut-eared Finch underneath and attached to a Brown 

 Hawk's nest. It contained six fresh eggs. The Hawk's nest 

 was occupied by two or three young ones nearly ready to fly. 



The Kestrel. 



Cerchneis cenchroides. 



Australia generally. 



Length of male 11.5 inches, wing 9.3; of female a little greater. 

 Above pale rufous, almost unspotted; tail blue-grey, barred with black 

 and tipped with white; head rufous grey, with black shaft-stripes; under 

 surface pale tawny, breast and sides with black streaks; abdomen and 

 under tail and wing coverts whiter; feet orange; iris dark. 



Found among forest or scrub, the Kestrel is an active and 

 graceful little Hawk, rising in the air and poising and circling 

 with easy buoyancy; the prey lizards or insects. The eggs are 

 placed in a spout or hole of a tree, or hole in a cliff, are four in 

 number, freckled all over with blotches and minute dots of rich 

 reddish-chestnut on a paler ground; length 1.5, breadth 1.25 

 inches. 



Sui-order Pandiones. 

 Outer toe reversible. 



The Osprey. 



Pandion leucocephalus. 



Tasmania, Australia, except Centre, New Guinea, Moluccas. 



Length 20 inches, wing 16 to 17 inches. Crown of head, nape, throat, 

 abdomen, thighs and under tail coverts white; sides of neck dark brown; 

 back, wings and tail clove-brown, each feather of the back with a narrow 

 circle of white at its tip; bill black; feet bluish white; iris primrose 

 yellow to bright orange. 



