WHITE GOSHAWK. 
remains of locusts, dragon-flies and Phasma, sp. On the labels of a male 
and female sent by Mr. E. A. G. Olive from Cooktown are marked ‘ food : 
cockroaches, beetles^ snakes.’ When driven by hunger, however, it does 
not hesitate to attack birds, and will even descend into a poultry-yard to 
secure its prey, one being killed at Hornsby, twenty-one miles from Sydney, 
having a chicken in its claws. Many birds are shot owing to their 
conspicuous and striking pure white plumage rendering them an object of 
attraction, especially when placed with a background of deep umbrageous 
foliage.” 
In the same place is a note from Mr. Malcolm Harrison of Hobart, 
Tasmania, to the same eflect : “ The White Goshawk occasionally puts in 
an appearance here, and its conspicuous plumage of course makes it an 
object of pursuit to the gunner. It has, therefore, little chance of breeding. 
Some years ago, however, Mr. A. E. Brent obtained several sets of eggs in 
the neighbourhood of Mount Eaulkner, and a set now in my cabinet was taken 
in the same locality. These eggs are longer in proportion than those of 
A. approximans, and the colouring is not so decided.” 
North makes no comment upon this, but it would have been only just 
to have added that Mr. Brent’s was the first record of the nidification of 
this bird, and that the eggs were described by Campbell (Viet. Nat. 1888). It 
has been pointed out several times in the Emu that North ignored the 
observations of other workers in this Catalogue, and it is unjust, whether 
the records are believed or not, to ignore them altogether. It is a simply 
matter to overlook a record, as I have myself erred in this way, but not 
intentionally ; but in the majority of cases North deliberately suppressed all 
reference to current Australian literature, a practice which cannot be too 
severely condemned. 
Campbell’s notes are so well known that they need not be reproduced 
here, while North’s additional notes relate only to nesting, and it seems 
superfluous to continue the reproduction of these nesting-notes only, a^ the 
books are available to all interested in eggs and nesting. All notes on habits, 
however, I would record and extract from Mr. Savidge’s account : “ The 
White Goshawk is found sparingly dispersed in the reaches of the Upper 
Clarence River, but is nowhere common. . . . Upon one occasion I found 
a white bird and a grey-backed one paired together : I have their eggs 
in my cabinet. All the young ones examined by me at Cangai, Camel-back, 
and Newbold Station in November, 1897, were pure white. From each of 
these nests, after being relined, a pair of eggs were taken the following 
season.” 
I have already given Barnard’s and M‘Lennan’s notes. 
51 
