412 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
white, freckled and mottled over almost the entire surface with rich 
reddish-brown, usually forming a patch about the larger end, in some 
instances on the smaller end. In common with the eggs of the other 
Brown Hawk, as well as those of the falcons, the inside lining of the 
shell is of a huffy colour when held up to transmitted light. 
A handsome clutch taken at Quindalup, on the 18th October, 
1889, during my trip to Western Australia, measures, in centimetres: 
(1) 5*4 x 4 0; (2) 5*37 x 4 04; (3) 5*22 x 4 03. 
Observations . — The Western or Striped Brown Hawk, although 
found in many parts of Australia, is not so common as the ordinary 
Brown Hawk ranging more over the vast western territory. 
The two clutches of eggs kindly presented to me while in 
Western Australia contained each a complement of three eggs, while 
one was taken from a nest built on the crown of a grass-tree. 
Another nest 1 myself found was situated in a beautifully leafed 
eucalypt (E. calopbyUa) } locally known as the red gum-tree. The 
bird was sitting, but the nest was inaccessible except to such expert 
climbers as the Messrs. Barnard. 
Near Point Cloates (Western Australia) Mr. Tom Carter, one 
September, took the unusual number of five eggs from a nest. He has 
taken eggs of the W estern Brown Hawk in the same district as early 
as the middle of July. 
Breeding months from July to November. 
Cerchneis cenchroides, Vigors and Horsfield. 
(Nankeen Kestrel.) 
Figure . — Gould: “ Birds of Australia,” fol., vol i. , pi. 13. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: “Birds of Australia,” 
Handbook, vol. i., p. 36 (1865) ; North : Catalogue Nests and Eggs 
Australian Birds, p. 22 (1889). 
Geographical Distribution . — Australia generally and Tasmania. 
Nest . — A crevice in a cliff, a hollow spout of a tree, or a deserted 
nest of a crow. In the far north-west a hole in an ant-hillock has 
been used. 
Eggs . —Clutch, 4-5 ; roundish in shape, slightly compressed at 
one end ; texture of shell fine with a perceptible trace of lustre or 
gloss on the surface ; ground colour buffy-white, in some instances 
freckled all over with reddish-brown, but more generally blotched as 
well with rich reddish-brown, and forming a patch upon one end of 
the egg, usually the larger but sometimes on the smaller. In other 
specimens the markings are of a rich, dark, pinkish-red. Dimensions 
of a full clutch, in centimetres: (1) 3*85 x 3 0; (2) 3*88 x 2*91; 
(3) 3*82 x 3*0; (4) 3*8 x 3*03 ; (5) 3*8 x 2*93. 
Observations . — This beautiful little Hawk is found nearly every- 
where Hying over forest, but mostly plain, in Australia. It is not so 
plentiful in Tasmania. 
I possess a lively recollection of the first Kestrel’s nest I robbed. 
It was one 9th November. The nesting-place was simply on the dust 
within a crevice or crack in an overhanging red cliff of the Werribee 
Kiver, near its mouth. Some trouble and risk were incurred in 
climbing the cliff’s face. The eggs were apparently much incubated ; 
therefore were carefully packed in the “ billy,” to be operated on at 
