COLLARED SPARROW-HAWK. 
Thus the typical form ranges from South Queensland, through New 
South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, to South Australia. To the north 
and north-west a form occurs which may be called : 
Acci'piter cirrhocephalus quaesitandus, subsp. nov. 
The type is from Cape York, North Queensland, 4th July, 1912, and 
the range would be North Queensland, Northern Territory, and North-west 
Australia, with perhaps the interior districts of Mid-west Australia. All 
the birds so far received from these places are paler throughout and may 
average smaller. I am not laying stress upon detailed measurements in 
this class and will discuss the reasons later. The variation in age and 
plumage makes accurate data impossible to prepare at the present time. 
An interesting form is the New Guinea one described by Rothschild 
and Hartert {Nov. Zool., Vol. XX., p. 482, 1913, Oct. 21) as Astur cirrho- 
cephalus papuanus. This bird is darker than the typical form, and not 
lighter as the Cape York birds are. 
Four forms may thus be doubtfully recognised. 
Accipiter cirrhocephalus cirrhocephalus (Vieillot). East Australia 
from South Queensland to South Australia. 
Accipiter cirrhocephalus quaesitandus Mathews. North Queensland, 
Northern Territory and North-west Australia. 
Accipiter cirrhocephalus hroomei Mathews. South and Mid-west 
Australia. 
Accipiter cirrhocephalus papuanus (Rothschild and Hartert). New 
Guinea. 
The following notes given me by Mr. Tom Carter refer to the Western 
form : “ The Sparrow-Hawk is not so common as the Goshawk, but 
distributed over the whole of the state. Three eggs were found in a nest 
on the Gascoyne River, July 23rd, 1887. The nest was about twenty feet 
from the ground in a white gum-tree and was flat in shape. On October 
20th, 1910, at Broome Hill, after several times seeing a Sparrow-Hawk leave 
its nest, which was built twenty-five feet from the ground near the end of 
a pendant branch of a white gum-tree, I knocked the nest down on to a 
blanket suspended below it to catch the eggs, but there were no eggs. 
These birds are very destructive to young chickens, and one killed a 
canary in its cage, in the shade of the verandah at Wensleydale this 
winter. I have seen them kiU Glossopsittacus porphyrocephalus on more 
than one occasion, although these lorikeets are very swift fliers.” 
Here we see the deliberate accusation of this bird as a chicken-killer 
in the West. I have not the least doubt myself that the habits of birds 
are more quickly changed than their coloration, etc., so that in the majority 
VOL. V. 
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