NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN ACCIPITRES. 
437 
The eggs have the peculiarity of being very much rounded at the 
larger end, are short upon the whole, and have the thin end pointed 
abruptly.” 
Falco melanogents, Gould. 
(Black-cheeked Falcon.) 
Figure. — Gould : “ Birds of Australia,” fol., vol. ii., pi. 8. 
Previous Descriptions of Fggs. — Gould: “Birds of Australia” 
(1848), also Handbook, vol. i., p. 27 (1865); North: Catalogue 
Nests and Eggs Australian Birds, p. 16 (1889); North: liecords 
Australian Museum, vol. ii. (1892). 
Geographical Distribution . — Australia in general, and Tasmania ; 
also Moluccas and Java. 
Nest. — Usually a crevice or ledge on an inaccessible cliff on the 
sea-coast but sometimes on perpendicular rocks inland, or a hollow 
spout of a tree, or even a deserted stick-nest of a larger bird is 
appropriated. Instances have been known of a covert of tussock- 
grass being chosen on the plains. 
Fggs. — Clutch, 3 ; round ovals in shape, slightly compressed 
towards one end ; texture of shell somewhat fine ; surface lustreless ; 
ground colour buff, which is scarcely perceptible, being obscured by 
the freckles and other small markings of pinkish-red, in some examples 
with chestnut-red. Upon these markings, agaiu, sparingly distributed, 
are larger markings or blotches of dark red or brown. Pinkish-red 
specimens may appear in the same set with a chestnut-red one. As 
in all falcons’ eggs, the inside lining of the shell, when held up to 
transmitted light, is a buffy colour. Dimensions of a proper clutch, in 
centimetres : (1) 5*23 x 4*05 ; (2) 5T4 x 4*05 ; (3) 5*16 x 3*98. 
This description is taken from a very beautiful clutch presented 
to me by my young friend, Mr. Charles French, junr. Its history 
is mentioned further on. 
Observations. — This fine, bold, and dashing Falcon is a widely 
distributed species frequenting, in pairs, wild rocky regions of the 
coast or cliffy localities inland suitable to its nature. 
In writing to me in 1886, Mr. E. D. Atkinson mentions he found 
in an almost inaccessible position three eggs of this Falcon, far 
incubated, on the top of a cliff (not on the face) on an island off the 
north-west coast of Tasmania. The date was 8th of October. 
In the Australian Museum Catalogue, and quoting valuable 
correspondents, Mr. North furnishes some extremely interesting notes 
regarding the nesting of the splendid Black-cheeked Falcon : — “On the 
4th October, 1888,” writes Dr. L. Holden, of Circular Head, Tasmania, 
“ I found a nesting-place of the Black-cheeked Falcon on the cliffs 
that bound Sisters’ Beach on the south-east; it was the same place that 
Mr. Atkinsou obtained his nest on the 10th 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 10 or 12 feet 
from the base of the cliff, and quite easily reached by a zigzag 
approach scarcely to be called a climb, the projecting rocks forming 
an easy stairway.” Again, “ I took a clutch of Falcon’s eggs last 
Saturday, the 26th September, 1891, from the same spot to an inch 
which I robbed in 1888. It is not a bare rock where the eggs were 
found ; there is a covering of grit and detritus f 
