432 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, of Yandembah, JS T ew South Wales, 
communicated exceedingly interesting notes relating to the nidification 
of the Allied Kite, which appear in the appendix of Mr. North’s 
catalogue. Prom one place I quote: — “The nest is a rough structure 
very similar to that of Circus assimilis (Jard. and Selby), composed 
outwardly of sticks, and, in the four I have examined, lined with 
small pieces of sheepskins with the wool on, picked from carcasses of 
dead sheep scattered over the plains. The nests are placed as a rule 
on the tops of pine-trees ( Callitris ) where the topmost branches divide, 
forming a three or more pronged fork or division, which securely holds 
the rough structure in position. In two instances this year (1889) the 
disused nests of Hieracidea orient alis were taken possession (from one 
of which in October last I took the Hieracidea s eggs), the only 
additions being the sheepskin lining. The number of eggs for a 
sitting never, so far as my experience goes, exceeds two.” 
The earliest nest containing eggs found by Mr. Bennett was on 
the 8th October, the latest on the 20th December; while we learn 
from Mr. Price Pleteher that from Christmastide to the end of 
Pebruary is the chief nesting time for this Kite in the far interior of 
Queensland. 
Lophotctinia isura, Gould. 
(Square-tailed Kite.) 
Figure. — Gould : “ Birds of Australia,” fol., vol. i, pi. 22. 
Previous Descriptions of Fggs. — Gould: “Birds of Australia” 
(1848), also Handbook, vol. i., p. 51 (1865); Ramsay: P.L.S., N.S.W., 
vol. vii., p. 413 (1882) ; North : Catalogue Nests and Eggs Australian 
Birds, p. 11 (1889). 
Geographical Distribution . — Queensland, New South Wales, 
Victoria, South and West Australia. 
Nest. — Constructed of sticks and twigs, lined sparingly with 
eucalpyt leaves and fibrous bark, and placed usually in the higher 
forked branches of a lofty tree. 
j Eggs. — Clutch, 2-3 ; roundish or round ovals in shape ; surface 
slightly coarse and lustreless; colour soft, warm, or buffy white. 
Examples in same clutch frequent^ vary much in character and 
colour of the markings. One of a pair is richly marked around the 
upper quarter with blotches and smudges, mostly confluent, of dark 
reddish-brown, the other being lightly clouded all over (except on 
either end, which is more spotted) with pinkish or chestnut-red; 
inside lining of the shell yellowish-green. Dimensions, in centimetres: 
(1) 5- 25 x 3 9; (2) 5*1 x 4 0. 
Observations. — The two first recorded nests of the Square-tailed 
Kite were discovered almost simultaneously in November, 1839 — one 
by Gould himself on the Upper Hunter River, New South Wales ; and 
the other by his able coadjutor, Gilbert, at the opposite side of the 
continent, in Western Australia. In Gould’s nest were a pair of 
eggs. w T hile Gilbert’s contained two young ones scarcely feathered. 
This nest was the usual structure of sticks placed on a horizontal 
branch of a white gum-tree in a dense forest. 
Six-and-forty years after these illustrious naturalists I find 
myself wistfully gazing at a hawk’s nest, about 70 feet above me, in a 
slanting forked branch of a gum-tree. Yes ; and the bird is sitting. 
