BROWN HAWK 
163 
fork at a height of rarely more than 30 feet from 
the ground. It is lined with tufts of cow-hair and 
strips of bark ; the depression in which the eggs are 
deposited is shallow. Three eggs is the normal 
clutch, laid in the last week of September or first 
week of October as a general rule ; but I have known 
eggs to be found in August. They are of a buflfy- 
white ground-colour, heavily freckled and blotched 
or washed with bright reddish brown. A single egg, 
taken near Chevy, has the ground-colour almost pure 
white and a distinct band of reddish brown rather 
nearer the larger end ; but this colouring is as unusual 
as it is beautiful. 
The growing young are apt to knock the nest to 
pieces, so that, though quite a large structure when 
built, it may be no bigger than a Magpie's nest by the 
time the brood leaves it. 
KESTREL 
Cerchneis cenchroides cenchroides 
This is one of our most beautiful Hawks, and the one 
which betrays least fear of man. It is widely spread 
over the district, alike in lightly timbered country, 
along the course of the Moorabool and Barwon Rivers 
above their junction, and in clearings in the bush. 
To the denser forest it does not resort, and, indeed, 
this is true of almost all our Hawks. Its most striking 
characteristic, and that by which it will most readily 
be recognised (apart from its light fawn colour), is 
