THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
in a hollow limb of the same tree. Not a hundred yards away, in a little 
tributary creek, a half-dead gum-tree was standing. In this tree were nests 
of the Marbled Owl {Ninox ocellata) and the Western Kestrel {Cerchneis 
unicolor), and in the bank of the creek at the foot of the tree a female Red- 
browed Pardalote {Pardalotus ruhricatus) was sitting on three eggs. The 
second nest was in a more lofty situation, being quite 60 feet above the water 
of the main Coongan. The nest, as usual, was on a horizontal limb, and very 
difficult to reach. It was nearly twice as bulky as the previous nest, being 
the accumulation of several years. I employed a native to obtain the eggs 
for me. The nest contained two, much incubated. Unfortunately, he broke 
one in descending the tree. These eggs were both marked with pale rust- 
coloured blotches. The broken egg had the markings all massed at the 
smaller end. In ground-colour these eggs were of a dirty white. The third 
nest, found a week later near the junction of the Taiga River with the 
Coongan — ^the latter river here being over half a mile in width — was at a 
height of not more than 30 feet. This was more due to the fact of the 
eucalypts on the Taiga being small than of any variation in the habits of the 
parent birds. This nest contained a fine young Eaglet, which would have left 
the nest in a week or ten days. The fourth nest was on the banks of the 
de Grey River, a few miles from where its tributary, the Coongan, effects a 
junction. It was in a fairly large eucalypt, and, as I was informed by the 
natives who found it, in a very inaccessible position, owing to its being placed 
near to the extremity of a horizontal branch. I had gone down the river, as 
I was under the impression the nest was in that direction. Instead of coming 
to me and telling me of the difficulty, the climber foolishly chopped off the 
whole limb, in the hope that when the eggs fell out his mate below would be 
able to catch one or the other. I need hardly add the experiment failed. 
Both eggs were irretrievably ruined. 
“The young Eaglet, before referred to, differed somewhat from its parents 
in plumage, being very rufous on the head, neck and breast, with narrow shaft 
lines. Cere greenish-yeUow. Tarsus feathered, and the claws very long and 
powerful. Pattern of the wmgs similar to that of the adult, but the plumage 
generally dead black with faint greyish margins. The long feathers of the 
occiput were well developed, and with black tips. Feathers of the head of a 
deeper brown than that of under-parts. Native name of the Little Eagle, 
Wee-dun-ba.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has written me : “ During my residence in West Australia 
one specimen only of this species has come under my notice. I shot it in April, 
1900 (record wet year) at a fiooded white gum-fiat inland from Point Cloates. 
It was perched in a tree surrounded by water, watching a flock of ducks.” 
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