440 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
Geographical Distribution. — Whole of Australia and Tasmania ; 
also Flores. 
Nest. — Large for the size of the bird, being usually an old stick- 
built home of another hawk, crow, &c., which the Falcon lines again 
with green branchlets of eucalypts, 
Eggs.— Clutch, 2-3; inclined to ovals in shape ; texture of shell 
fine, but lustreless ; ground colour buff or buffy-white, which is nearly 
obscured by the freckled and mottled markings of light reddish-brown. 
Dimensions of a clutch, in centimetres: (L) 4'34 x 315; (2) 4*02 
x 3 21. 
Observations. — The Little or the White-fronted Falcon is the 
smallest and probably the most frequently seen of our Australian 
Falcons, being found throughout the continent, as well as Tasmania. 
It loves such wild rocky situations as the Werribee Gorge, Victoria, 
where it has been found breeding by the Messrs. Brittlebank. My 
experiences with this fine little fellow have been in Queensland. One 
afternoon, near the edge of an interesting forest, I noticed a bronze- 
wing pigeon and a Falcon in its wake, both flying at a tremendous rate 
of speed; they seemed simply to cut streaks in the air. The pigeon 
by reaching the timber (its oniy chancel thus evaded its bold adversary. 
A nest I saw was not less than 50 or 60 feet from the ground, 
near the top of a straight tree, well-balanced with boughs, and 
standing at the edge of a lagoon. With the generous exertions of 
Mr. Harry Barnard, I was enabled to place the contents of the nest — 
a pair of rare eggs — in my cabinet. Mr. Barnard tells me he has never 
known the Little Falcon to make a nest of its own, always choosing 
the deserted nest of some other hawk and lining it again with green 
twigs. 
Gould succeeded in finding several nests of the Little Falcon 
both in Tasmania and on the continent ; they were all placed near the 
tops of the most lofty trees, and generally inaccessible. The nests 
were rather large structures, being fully equal in size to that of a 
crow, and slightly concave in form. In all probability they were 
crows’ old nests. 
In Tasmania Mr. A. E. Brent took the eggs of the Little Falcon 
from the broken spout of a peppermint-tree (eucalypt). There was 
no nest save a few small sticks round about the eggs, which reposed 
on the rotten substance in the hollow. 
Hieracidea orientalis, Schlegel. 
(Brown Hawk.) 
Figure. — Gould: “Birds of Australia,” fol., vol. i., pi. 11. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: “Birds of Australia” 
(1848), also Handbook, vol. i., p. 32 (1865); North: Catalogue Nests 
and Eggs Australian Birds, p. 20 (1S89). 
Geographical Distribution . — Whole of Australia and Tasmania. 
Nest. — Constructed of sticks and twigs, lined with leaves, strips 
of bark, &c., and usually situated in the forked branches of a tall 
tree, sometimes on bushes in the interior. Frequently another hawk’s 
pr crow’s old nest is used. 
Eggs. — Clutch, 2-3, sometimes 4; generally round ovals in shape, 
in some instances pointed or compressed towards one end ; texture of 
shell somewhat fine, but lustreless. There is much variation in the 
