THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
any part of Victoria ? It is the first of its kind I have seen. Driving back 
we saw a little Falcon {F. lunulatus) dart at express speed through some 
dead timber, to the usual accompaniment of small birds’ twittering ; and 
nearer home, at Taripta, a Black-cheeked Falcon {F. melanogenys) flew out 
of a box-tree alongside the road. Its flight was slow for a Falcon, and yet 
the wings seemed to beat quickly. This is not a great place for Hawks, and 
to see three kinds of Falcon in one day is for me at least a ‘ local record.’ ” 
Captain S. A. White has noted : “ The Black Falcon is seldom if ever 
seen down South, and in the North it is rare to see more than a pair in the 
same district, or this has been my experience. They are birds of most 
graceful flight and will soar on outstretched wings for hours with hardly a 
noticeable movement in their wings : their dark plumage makes them very 
conspicuous.’*’ 
During his expedition into the Interior of Australia he only noted one 
specimen while they were ascending Ellery Creek. 
Ramsay recorded that J. B. White, Esq., of Springsure, Queensland, 
presented him with a specimen, and one was forwarded at the same time by 
Mr. White to the British Museum. 
This bird is still so rare in collections that no subspecies have been 
named. Though North wrote : “ Mr. G. A. Keartland . . . has also noted 
it breeding near Lake Way in Western Australia, and the vicinity of the 
Fitzroy River in North-western Australia,” he added : “I have never handled 
or seen a specimen from the western portion of the continent.” He then 
reproduced Heartland’s notes which read : “ My flrst specimen of the Black 
Falcon {Falco subniger) was shot many years ago at Heidelberg. It is 
occasionally seen near Melbourne and at Bacchus Marsh. In Central 
Australia these birds frequent the rocky gorges of the MacDonnell Range 
where they prey upon the small marsupials and reptiles so common in the 
spinifex. They are very wild and swift in their movements. Their nests 
are similar to those of Hieracidea berigora. In July, 1896, during the journey 
of the Calvert Expedition, I saw a nest of this species in a Cork-bark tree, 
near Lake Way, Western Australia, containing a young bird, and in January, 
1897, several others were noted in the tall Eucalypti near the Fitzroy River, 
North-western Australia.” 
The bird from Queensland that I differentiated as a subspecies I now 
consider to be identical with the type of subniger. 
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