12 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
lectors or correspondents from whom the specimens were obtained 
and whose names will be found prefixed to each description. 
Falco melanogenys, Gould. Black-cheeked Falcon. 
Gould , Ilandbk . Bds. Austr Yol. i., sp. 8, p. 26. 
Regarding the additional information on the breeding habits 
of Falco melanogenys , the most courageous of all our Raptorial 
birds, I am indebted to Dr. L. Holden, of Circular Head, and 
Mr. E. D. Atkinson, of Table Cape, North-west Tasmania. From 
the former gentleman’s notes kindly sent me I have extracted the 
following : — 
“On the 10th of September, 1887, Mr. E. D. Atkinson, took 
two fresh eggs of this species on a ledge of cliffs between Sister’s 
Hill and Boat Harbour.” “ On the 4th of October, 1888, I 
found a nesting place of the Black-cheeked Falcon on the cliffs 
that bound Sister’s Beach on the South-east, it was the same place 
that Mr. Atkinson obtained his nest on the 10th of September, 
1887. The eggs were three in number and hard set, but could be 
blown, and laid on the rock without any nest, the ledge being but 
some ten or twelve feet from the base of the cliff, and was quite 
easily reached by a zigzag approach scarcely to be called a climb, 
the projecting rocks forming an easy stairway.” Dr. Holden 
visited the same place on the 26th of September, 1889, but there 
were no eggs. On the 30th of September, 1891, he writes as 
follows: — “I took a clutch of Falcon’s eggs last Saturday, the 
26th inst., from the same spot to an inch which I robbed in 1888. 
It is not bare rock where the eggs were found, there is a covering 
of grit and detritus. In more frequented spots these birds take 
care to breed in as inaccessible places as possible, and although 
in Tasmania the Black-cheeked Falcons are numerous, their eggs 
are usually unattainable.” 
The above set of eggs are typical eggs of this species, they are 
in form rounded ovals, the isabelline ground colour of which is 
almost obscured by minute freckles, dots, spots, and irregular 
shaped blotches of deep reddish-brown ; in one instance these 
markings are evenly dispersed over the surface of the shell, in 
the others they become confluent, forming a cap on the larger 
end in one specimen, and on the smaller end in another. Length 
(A) 2-12 x 1-65 inch ; (B) 2T7 x D65 inch ; (C) 2T8 x D67 inch. 
This bird usually breeds on the rocky cliffs of the coast in the 
vicinity of which it is more frequently found, but the late 
Mr. Kenric Harold Bennett obtained the eggs of this Falcon for 
several seasons on Mt. Manara, an isolated rocky prominence 
rising out of a plain in the Western District of New South Wales. 
In favourable situations, with the exception of the Northern 
and North-eastern portions of the Continent, this species is found 
all over Australia. 
