THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
out on the 28th October, 1909, to look up a nesting-hollow of these birds 
from which he had taken young birds some years previously ; he found the 
hollow, in a large Red Gum, contained two nearly fully-fledged young birds, 
as big as Brown Hawks, with bill horn colour tipped with black, iris yellow, 
legs yellow, crown of head and cheeks black, back dark brown, all the under- 
surface rufous with brown cross bars. From the feathers and castings in the 
hollow they were evidently being fed upon Musk and Little Lorikeets.” 
Mr. G. A. Keartland recorded : “In North-western Australia it is known as 
the ‘ Snake Hawk,’ owing to its energy in pursuit of these reptiles. . . . 
They were numerous near the Fitzroy River. When grasshoppers are 
plentiful these Falcons will feast upon them until almost too gorged 
to fly.” 
Batey has written in the Emu, Vol. VII., p. 2, 1907, of Falco melanogenys 
in Victoria : “ My opinion is that, for rapidity of flight, this bird cannot be 
excelled. I have noticed it taking exercise — headlong plunges downwards 
and then shooting up vertically. It was somewhat rare our way, and was 
supposed to nest in the Eagle Rocks, situated on our run. The cliff in question 
is the flnest on Jackson’s Creek. Magpies, though very courageous, feared 
this Falcon greatly, for from observation, when other birds raised alarm 
cries on its approach, the Magpies consulted their own safety. Those years 
Musky Lorikeets, following up gum blossom, passed in droves. When 
pursued they endeavoured to escape by mounting aloft, but their enemy, 
shooting above them, darted downwards and pinned one with his strong 
talons. The poor thing screamed until the Falcon silenced it by a nip on 
the head with his sharp bill. Once after sundown a horde of Ravens was 
seen, perhaps a hundred yards in the air, when suddenly a Black-cheeked 
Falcon shot straight up and caught one, but the prey being too heavy, the 
captor fell with it to the ground at an angle of 45 degrees. We ran over, and 
the Falcon took flight, but the victim was stone dead — killed, I think, with 
a hard squeeze across the back. It is upwards of 20 years since this grand 
Falcon was noted in the old locality, the last pair seen was at the Hanging 
Rock, where presumably they nested.” 
I have no original notes concerning this bird from Tasmania, so am 
quoting some from North’s Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, as Tasmania is the 
typical locality of macropus Swainson, the name now used for the Australian 
Peregrine. Dr. Lonsdale Holden’s notes read : “ On the 25th September, 
1886, I saw a pair of Falco melanogenys were nesting on the sheerest part of 
the sea face of Circular Head Bluff, about a quarter of the way down the 
precipice, and I climbed along a ledge which reached within ten yards of the 
crevice in which they were breeding. The birds flew screaming about me^ 
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