436 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
inserts its claw and carries them off at its leisure, for when the eggs 
are broken the emu abandons the nest. So much for the blacks’ 
story. 
“ This, however, is in a great measure corroborated by a friend of 
mine who lives on the adjoining station, and who told me that in 
August last (1881) he found the nest of an emu containing five eggs, 
and all of them had a broken hole in the side, and that the fracture 
had been done quite recently, and in the nest also was one of these 
lumps of calcined earth about the size of a man’s fist. 
“ In a nest to which I recently ascended, I found amongst the 
remains of various reptiles the shells of a couple of bustard’s eggs. 
In the nest were a couple of young Buzzards lately hatched.” 
With regard to the nidifi cation of the Black-breasted Buzzard, 
Mr. Bennett proceeds to state — “It usually lays about the middle of 
August, and the young leave the nest about the beginning of 
December. If undisturbed the old birds resort year after year to the 
same nest, but should it be robbed they abandon it for ever, and it is 
never occupied by the same species again, although other species of 
hawks, notably the brown hawk, sometimes take possession. I have 
never known a Buzzard to touch carrion or feed upon anything it did 
not capture, and except at the nest I have never seen them perch on a 
tree, but have often seen them perch upon the ground. The note, 
which is something between a whistle and a scream, is only uttered 
when visiting the nest.” 
Baza subcristata, Gould. 
(Crested Hawk.) 
Figure. — Gould : “Birds of Australia,” fol., vol. i., pi. 25. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs, — Gould : “ Birds of Australia,” 
Handbook, vol. i., p. 57 (1865); Bam say: P.Z.S., p. 392 (1867). 
Geographical Distribution. — Northern Territory, Queensland, 
New South Wales, and interior of South Australia (?). 
Eest. — The usual stick structure built by hawks, and situated in 
a tree. 
Eggs . — Clutch, 3-4 ; roundish in shape, but sometimes inclined to 
be jminted at one end; surface of the shell comparatively fine; in other 
examples rough and granulated, with a slight trace of lustre; colour 
usually uniform bluish- white, but in some instances very meagrely 
blotched and spotted with light-brown. Dimensions, in centimetres, 
of odd eggs: 4‘33 x 3'63 (round example); 4'45 x 3*55 (pointed 
example). 
Observations . — Por the eggs of this fine and singular Hawk 1 am 
indebted to the late George Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo, from whom 
I received them in 1883. They tallied with the description of the 
single egg furnished by Gould. However, Dr. 11a in say redescribed 
other eggs of the Crested Hawk, in 1867, with the following infor- 
mation : — “ I was fortunate enough to procure three eggs of this 
species taken by Mr. Macgillivray’s blackfellovv ‘Daddy.’ Mr. 
Macgillivray informs me that when ‘Daddy’ was taking the eggs 
the female dashed so close to him that he killed it with his tomahawk. 
The male bird belonging to the nest had been shot the day before. 
The nest was a comparatively small structure of sticks, and placed 
upon a horizontal bough, at a considerable distance from the ground. 
