PELICAN 
and yet the last flight I saw of Pelicans was of about 
twenty birds swinging low down over Flinders School, 
almost within gunshot. 
The Pelican's diet is practically all fish. 
SPOTTED HARRIER 
Circus assimilis 
To my mind this is the most beautiful of our many 
handsome birds of prey, and it is v/ith the greater 
regret that I must add that we may rule it off the 
list of birds with which there is a reasonable chance 
of meeting in our district. Its known occurrences 
here are few. Mr. Mulder is my authority for stating 
that it has been shot in the " samphire " marshes, near 
Point Henry, and in October, 191 3, I thought I saw 
one hovering over an oat-field at Ceres ; but I could 
not get near enough to be sure, and the bird does 
resemble the ordinary Swamp-hawk on the wing. 
Close at hand the differences are obvious enough, 
for the Spotted Harrier has no white on the rump, 
and if you can get at all under the bird, you cannot 
mistake the beautiful regularly-spotted breast and 
the broad bars of alternate brown and grey on the 
under surface of the tail. 
It is a species which would appear to be more 
plentiful in the interior of New South Wales than 
elsewhere ; there it breeds, not nesting on the ground, 
as does the Common Swamp-hawk, but in a bush or 
tree, often at a considerable height from the ground. 
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