THE BIBDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
of cases subspecies will have slightly different habits. Of course, chicken- 
kiUing has nothing to do with subspecific differentiation, as it is more or 
less an artificial habit and would depend upon the plenitude of food and 
the nature of the individual Hawk. In the case of the Goshawk, it has 
become a fixed habit through that bird’s comparative laziness, whatever 
this may be due to. 
The two following notes also refer to Western birds, but while the 
former is certainly applicable to hroomei, the latter would perhaps be better 
placed under quaesitandus, as the birds I have examined from the interior 
of West Australia are pale birds. 
Milligan, in the Emu, Vol. III., p. 16, 1903, noted during a trip to the 
Stirling Ranges, West Australia : “ One morning in the vicinity of Yeter- 
mirrup Spring, I observed one of these winged hunters scouring a gully. 
He was flying at a terrific pace, Just about two feet above the rough 
ground herbage. His turnings, where patches of scrub and other natural 
obstacles intercepted a straight flight, were particularly graceful. Evidently 
his reputation had preceded him, and his flight was observed, judging by the 
way the Honey-eaters and other small birds sounded the alarm note of 
danger. By the same means the course of his subsequent flight could be 
traced half a mile further away.” 
Whitlock, writing on the birds of East Murchison {Emu, Vol. IX., 
p. 190, 1910) stated ; “ Scattered pairs are to be found throughout the 
district, breeding in suitable haunts. Near Milly Pool I found three 
nests — the first a very weU constructed nest in a beef- wood tree. All the 
material was entirely new and neatly put together. The cup was shallow, 
but for aU that profusely lined with green eucalypt leaves. The female 
sat close, and I could not see from below. On climbing the tree I found 
four beautiful eggs, well marked, but with the blotches pale rufous, in 
which characteristic they differ from eggs of the European Sparrow- 
Hawk which they otherwise resemble. A second nest was a rough untidy 
structure, probably the old nest of some larger Hawk, but like the lastj the 
egg cavity was neatly lined with fresh eucalypt leaves. This nest contained 
three fresh eggs, quite spotless, and almost white in ground colour. 
I was very unwell at the time, and in coming down the tree got caught 
on a snag, breaking two of the eggs. My third nest was in a very large 
casuarina, and was again an old nest re-lined. I took it probably before 
the clutch was completed. It contained but two fresh eggs.” 
The note by Keartlandi, as here reproduced, given in the Trans. Roy. 
8oc. 8.A., Vol. XXII., p. 165, 1898, would belong to A. c. quaesitandus : 
“ Along the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers and their branches these bold 
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