224 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
traveller, a sparrow-hawk gave a singular instance of its fearless 
intrepidity. It dashed after a pigeon into a licensed house, 
swooped round the little bar, and entered an inner room where 
the quarry had sought shelter. 
For its nesting-place it appears to have a preference for 
rocky gullies fringed with trees, up river beds where lofty rocks 
tower cliff-like above the sombre foliage of the woods, or by the 
shrub-dotted crags that abut on a lake or river gorge. It builds 
amongst rocks, rarely on the bare soil, amongst sheltering tufts 
of snowgrass. Its complement of eggs is four, but in a few 
instances I have known it to be satisfied with one. Inform they 
are oval, sometimes ovoid ; in colouration eggs from the same 
eyry show a good deal of variety, 
A specimen from the Paringa River, Westland, is yellowish- 
white, entirely dotted over with very minute sparks of brown, 
darkest at: the ends. Another, from Geff’s Knob, Hakatere, 
Ashburton Gorge, yellowish-white, marked with rich reddish- 
brown, with an irregular light zone round the bilge. From the 
Upper Waimakariri I have another of rich red brown over the 
whole surface, sparingly and irregularly figured with slight marks 
of blackish-brown. A set of four eggs collected by Geoffrey 
Potts from a ledge beneath an overhanging rock on Mount 
Walker, Orari, affords a good illustration of the variety of colour 
to be found in one eyry. One is pinky over two-thirds of its 
surface, marked by some scattered specks of brown, the upper 
part around the apex covered with a blotch of reddish-brown, 
with some blackish irregular marks ; another is creamy white, 
more amply dotted with rounded spots, the dark covering from 
the apex reaches lower than on the last described ; the third has 
the top and one side profusely suffused with rich reddish-brown, 
with’a few thin blackish markings ; the fourth, of rich pinky 
cream, is richly coloured with deep reddish-brown ; near to and 
around the apex the ground colour is again seen in a few 
openings of the mass of deeper colour. 
They measure about one inch eight lines in length, with a 
breadth of one inch five lines; in some specimens these dimen- 
sions are slightly exceeded. The breeding season is in the 
months of October, November and December. 
Genus—Circus. 
Circus assimilis, Jard. and Selby. 
Harrier, Swamp-hawk, Kahu. — Notwithstanding the im- 
mense numbers that are annually killed off by unreflecting 
settlers, this very useful bird is yet to be found in abundance. 
One might have expected that its value as a rabbit destroyer 
alone would have afforded it protection. So far from its 
merits being duly appreciated there are many farmers who 
destroy it by gins or poison, even when it is engaged in 
hunting mice in the rick, steading, or yard. It certainly 
hunts hares ; but they increase in sufficient abundance in most 
parts of the country. Even wholesale slaughtcr is sometimes 
