ALLIED HAREIER (SWAMP-HAWK). 
have since continually used it as the specific name, though recently admit- 
ting the Australian form as subspecifically separable under the name 
gouldi. I will discuss the forms later on. 
Captain S. A. White wrote me from South Australia : “ This bird was 
very abundant at the Reed-beds, when much swamp land was covered in 
dense reeds and flags, but since the reclaiming of the land and the dis- 
appearance of the flags and reeds, these birds have almost forsaken us. 
One of the first nests I remember taking was a swamp-hawk’s : they were 
fond of building in the thick flags, where they made a neat nest, and the 
general clutch was four eggs, though some have had six. These birds are 
plentiful along the margins of our lakes and the back waters of the Murray 
where flags and reeds grow. 
“ They are very bold birds, and when shooting duck I have known them 
to carry off ducks I had shot before I could get into the water after them. 
The male bird is very conspicuous with his patch of white on the rump : 
when hawking over the reed-beds every turn of the body d,isplays the white 
upper tail-coverts. Their cry is at times a harsh call and at others quite a 
whistle.” 
Dr. A. Morgan’s notes read : “A very common bird throughout the 
southern parts of South Australia, where it is generally known as the ‘ swamp- 
hawk ’ or ‘ wheat-hawk ’ from its habit of hawking over swampy country and 
crops of standing wheat. It is still quite common within a few miles of 
Adelaide, where it breeds in the crops. It lives upon ducks, small birds and 
mice, which it catches by pouncing upon them as it skims over reed-beds and 
marshes. The nest is always built upon the ground and made of small sticks, 
reeds and long grasses ; the eggs are white with a green lining and vary in 
number from two to six, the most usual number being three : all the eggs 
in my collection were taken in November.” 
Mr. T. P. Austin, from Cobbora, New South Wales, states : “ Only 
twice have I seen the species in this district, a single bird each time, but in 
the Winchelsea district, Victoria, they were very plentiful, also all through 
the Ararat district ; in both districts I have often seen their nests, the 
foundation of which was usually composed of large dead stems of the common 
black (Scotch) thistle lined with a little dry grass, the whole nest being 
most carelessly arranged^, usually placed in long rushes in a swamp, and only 
a few inches above the surface of the water, but more than once I have seen 
nests placed in bulrushes growing in very deep water in lagoons and holes 
in a river. On Barwon Park Station, Winchelsea, Victoria, many years ago, 
their nests were very plentiful: while walking along a creek one morning I 
found five nests within a mile. They appear to lay their eggs at long 
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