ALLIED HARRIER (SWAMP-HAWK). 
also close on hatching : consequently, when one of the parent birds was 
sitting on the second clutch, the feeding of the young one must have devolved 
on the non-sitting bird. One would naturally have thought that the young 
one, about a month old, would have eaten his small brothers and sisters, 
but apparently he didn’t : he looked very comicab sitting on the edge of the 
nest in a defiant attitude (see Plate xii.) and the two little ones in the centre 
trying to hide behind the other, and rolling the two eggs about in their efforts 
to do so. The parent birds must have had a very busy time of it keeping 
their two broods supplied with food. I subsequently learnt of a second ease 
near Avoca (Victoria) which was almost similar, except that there were no 
eggs in the nest, only one young one about a month or six weeks old, and 
three about a week old, which shows that these birds do occasionally rear 
double clutches.” 
In the next volume, p. 190, Colonel Legge added more notes : “ With 
reference to Mr. Le Souef’s note on the breeding of the Harrier {Circus 
gouldi) at CuUenswood, those birds have resorted to the same lagoon for many 
years past, varying their time for nesting slightly in accordance with the 
season whether wet or dry^ so that the locality is sufficiently free from water. 
Some years back the nests used to be on some slight eminence, of which 
there are several at the nesting-site, caused by the accumulation of silt round 
tussocks among the reeds, but now they usually resort to the dead level of 
the lagoon. Originally the ancestors of that pair of Harriers bred in a small 
lagoon of about three acres in extent much nearer the homestead, but after it 
was drained they forsook that side and took to the present one. During the 
breeding-season these Harriers are destructive to poultry, coming about the 
houses in search of chickens for their young, and every year we lose a few 
from our yards. Young rabbits also form part of their prey, and taking 
them all the year round they do more good than harm — certainly in a rabbit- 
infested district. Before the breeding-season it is their habit to sc^ar high 
in the air, similarly to the Brown Hawk (Hieracidea), uttering a shriU\ scream. 
In all open marshy districts these birds form the most attractive objects of 
their family, as they ‘ course ’ gracefully over the land, often for considerable 
distances, with outstretched wings, in search of their prey, and at such 
times no doubt often pick up an unwary Quail. The Harrier, with its long 
tarsus, makes a good object-lesson of the manner in which birds of prey use 
their talons. When pursued by Magpies, as they so often are in the breeding- 
season, the latter coming up behind them and often above them with great 
speed, the Harrier wiU, when taken unawares, perhaps, turn around on its side 
and strike out the long leg and talons nearer its pursuer with lightning-like 
rapidity, the Magpie sheering off in its dash, and just getting clear of the 
29 
