12 FALCONID^. 



habitat, for it is most frequently seen in that locality, and here 

 also on several occasions I have discovered its nests. Its prey to 

 a great extent, consists of various reptiles — such as snakes, frill- 

 necked and sleepy lizards — it also has the singular habit of 

 robbing the nests of Emus and Bustards of their eggs. T*'l"y first 

 information on this point I obtained from the blacks, and for 

 some time I was inclined to disbelieve their assertion though the 

 same story was told by blacks from all parts of the district, as it 

 was so contrary to my experience of the Accipiter family. At 

 length, however, I was compelled to alter my opinion, for I 

 subsequently found portions of Emu egg shells in the nest of one 

 of these Buzzards. The manner in which they effect the abstraction 

 of the Emu eggs — as told me by the blacks — shows an amount of 

 cunning and sagacity that one would scarcely give the bird credit 

 for, and is as follows : — ' On discovering a nest, the Buzzard 

 searches about for a stone, or what is much more frequently found 

 here, a hard lump of calcined earth. Armed with .this the 

 Buzzard returns (and should the Emu be on the nest) alights on 

 the ground some distance off, and approaches with outstretched 

 flapping wings, the Emu alarmed at this, to it, strange looking 

 object, hastily abandons the nest and runs away, the Buzzard then 

 takes quiet possession, and with the stone breaks a hole in the 

 side of each egg into which it inserts its claw and carries them off 

 at its leisure ; for when the eggs are broken the Emu abandons 

 the nest.' So much for the blacks' story ! " 



" This however, is in a great measure corroborated by a friend 

 of mine, who lives on the adjoining station, and who told me that 

 in August last, (1881) he found the nest of an Emu containing 

 five eggs, and that all of them had a broken hole in the side, and 

 that the fracture had been done quite recently, and in the nest 

 also was one of these lumps of calcined earth about the size of a 

 man's fist." 



" In a nest to which I recently ascended, I found amongst the 

 remains of various reptiles, the shells of a couple of Bustards' 

 eggs. In this nest were a couple of young Buzzai'ds lately hatched." 



