GEEY FALCON. 
It had breakfasted off a Dove {G. tranquilla) and was just commencing a 
meal on a Betcherrygah (Warbling Grass Parrakeet) when I interrupted 
proceedings.” 
So little has been recorded of this rare bird that I think it worth adding 
Dr. W. Macgillivray’s account given by North in the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., 
No. 1, Vol. III., pp. 267-268, 1912 : “ Some few years ago a bird-catcher 
brought me a pair of young Grey Falcons {Falco hypoleucus). They soon 
became very quiet and tractable, and remained so, their disposition contrasting 
with that of three Black-cheeked Falcons which I had in an adjoining cage. 
These latter birds never made friends with me, and I let them go. The Grey 
Falcon is sparingly dispersed throughout the district, several pairs coming 
under our observation during our outback trip in September, 1909. The 
first pair we found nesting on Gardiner’s Creek, about fifty miles north from 
Broken Hill, on the 13th September. As we were going up the Creek the 
female first flushed from her nest in a tall tree, then the male from a smaller 
nest lower down, where he had evidently been sheltering from the wind. The 
real nest, a large loosely-built structure, after the style of a Eaven’s, was 
placed on a small limb at the very top of the tree sixty feet from the ground. 
On account of the size of the limb it was difficult of access, but Mr. W. 
M‘Lennan, by careful climbing, managed to take a clutch of three fresh eggs 
from the nest, which was lined with wool. On the 15th September we found 
another nest of this species on Sturt’s Meadow’s Creek, just below the 
homestead, placed as before on a thin limb at the very top of a Gum-tree ; as 
it was evening when we found it, and our camp was only a few hundred yards 
away, we left it tiU morning after watching the female settle herself on the 
nest for the night. In a hollow of the same tree a Cockatoo {Cacatua 
sanguinea) had its eggs. Whilst Mr. M'Lennan was climbing to the nest 
early next morning, the two birds sailed uneasily round and round above 
the tree, but made no attempt to defend their home. The nest was ^t a 
height of eighty feet from the ground by measurement. It was as 
large as a Little Eagle’s nest, loosely built of sticks and lined with wool. 
Four slightly incubated eggs were in it. The birds uttered no kind of cry 
at any time. On the same day that we found this nest, off a small creek 
near the White Cliffs-road, we saw another pair of these birds, which 
had evidently taken possession of an old Wedge-tailed Eagle’s nest 
in a Leopard-tree, a nesting cavity having been shaped in the old nest, 
but no eggs laid. Budgerigars were flying at frequent intervals down 
these creeks, dropping off to breed here and there. Black-breasted 
and Eufous Song Larks were breeding freely, the former on the plains 
u,nd the latter in the undergrowth and rank herbage along the creeks ; 
237 
