i6o BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
be told over again in this case, and, in this district 
at least, there is now only one pair of Black-cheeked 
Falcons which is known to breed. 
The home of this pair is in the face of a great cliff 
overlooking the sea. It was in the month of No- 
vember, 1904, that, visiting the locality with a friend 
and peering over the brink of the precipice, I for the 
first time saw the two dusky birds dart out from 
ledges where they had been perching. The nesting- 
season was then probably over, and the young 
capable of flight, though we did not see them. But 
the adult birds kept swooping and soaring past us 
for half an hour, uttering cries which reminded me 
something of the Spurwing Plover ; a little also 
there was in it of the complaining note of the Minah. 
Although very fast fliers when in pursuit of their 
quarry, on this occasion the flight of both birds 
was comparatively slow and soaring. The male is 
smaller than the female in all dimensions. 
The same birds have, I believe, bred in the same 
spot every year since, and as the ledge in the cliff 
where the eggs are laid is inaccessible without grave 
risk, it is likely that they will continue to do so until 
some fiend shoots the mother-bird w^hen, grown bold 
with the instinct to protect her young, she swoops 
close to the intruder. 
The young probably distribute themselves over the 
country, taking up, it may be, their abode on more 
remote cliffs. Apart from this pair, I have only 
seen isolated birds in the district, sometimes at a 
