THE BIEDS OF AUSTEALIA. 
egg 5.70 X 4.10 c.m. ; smallest egg, 5.00 x 3.90 c.m. Earliest date on which 
I have found eggs August 11th, latest date September 16th.” 
Captain S. A. White states : “ leracidea herigora is very abundant in 
South Australia, and is to be found in almost any locality. We met with 
these birds on several occasions during our 600 miles and more trip from 
Port Augusta to the Gawler Eanges and seem to be thinly dispersed 
through the ranges as well as the surrounding plains. On the 21st of 
August, 1912, we discovered the first pair nesting for this trip. They had 
taken possession of a crow’s nest placed in a gum-tree growing in a dry 
watercourse and about sixty feet from the ground. A male bird was 
upon the nest and allowed us to walk round the tree and throw sticks and 
stones at the nest before being dislodged. The nest contained three eggs 
slightly incubated. On September 16th, 1912, found a nest in a Myall tree 
about fifteen feet from the ground ; female sat very closely on three eggs 
heavily incubated. Insects play a big part in the diet of these birds, but we 
found small lizards to be their staple food. They are rapid of flight and 
utter a very harsh and discordant cry.” 
Eeporting later on his expedition into the Interior, Capt. S. A. White 
{Trans. Roy. Soc. 8.A., Vol. 38, p. 426, 1914) wrote : “ leracidea herigora. 
Striped Brown Hawk. This is a common bird throughout the central 
region ; we found them nesting all through the country. Took fresh eggs 
in July, August, September and October, and there were young nearly 
ready to fly in nests observed during the same months of the year. I see no 
variation between this bird and those we collected west of Port Augusta. 
Diet seems to be chiefly lizards, insects, and an occasional small or young 
bird.’ 
Mr. Tom Carter’s note is important, as under the name Hieracidea 
occidentalis he has observed : “ The Brown Hawk is by far the commonest 
haw'^k in West Australia, and can be seen in any district. As to the two 
species occidentalis and herigora^ described by Gould, I was always very 
doubtful respecting them, and only shot two birds that approached the 
description of herigora : this was at Point Cloates. The variation in the 
plumage of the birds is very great. I have a skin of an adult male shot at 
Broome Hill in which the whole of the under-plumage from the chin to the 
vent is creamy -white, the thighs only being rufous. Each feather has a 
narrow stripe of blackish- brown, and the color of the whole under-parts is 
very much like that , of a Kestrel {Cerchneis). The usual clutch of eggs is 
three, occasionally four are laid, and once I found five in a nest. In the 
Mid- West I have noted eggs between June 28th and September 1st. On 
July 28th, 1893, I found three eggs laid in the broken top of a large white 
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