NANKEEN KESTREL. 
ill!' 
Three succeeding notes are given by the writers under the name, or refer 
to, Cerchneis unicolor. I will give the history of this after those notes, but 
would remark how easily literature can be produced unless birds are always 
procured to verify the facts given. 
Under the name Cerchneis unicolor, Whitlock has recorded the following 
{Emu, Vol. VIII., p. 178, 1909) from West Australia : “ Native name Binbirri. 
Much more common on the lower De Grey than on the Coongan. It seems 
to favour the plains rather than the rocky timbered gorges of the latter river. 
I obtained nests, however, in both districts. In all cases the eggs were laid 
in hollow limbs of eucalypts, at no great height from the ground. The first 
I took was in a dead limb, and I should have passed it by had not the tell- 
tale flake of down at the mouth of a remarkably small nest-hole arrested my 
attention. As it was, I climbed the tree, half expecting to find the nest of 
Barnardius occidentalis, for which I was then searching. On the lower Coongan 
I obtained the remarkable number of eight eggs from one nest. They were 
obviously the production of the same female, as the eggs can be arranged 
in two sets and the patterns paired, the variation of each complete set being 
in the tint of the markings. Probably the female lost her first mate and 
paired again immediately. It is a remarkable contrast that the nests of this 
species should all be built in hollow spouts, while an equal number of its close 
ally, C. cenchroides, in the Irwin district of the south-west, should, with one 
exception, have been adapted nests of the common Crow, the exception being 
built on the shelves of a precipice, possibly in the nest of some other Hawk 
or Haven.” 
Crossman also observes {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 86, 1909) from Cumminin 
Station, West Australia, under the name Cerchneis cenchroides : “ Common. 
It is quite possible that C. unicolor (Milligan) occurs also, as there appear 
to be two varieties, but I have never handled specimens of the birds.” Later, 
from Broome, North-west Australia {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 149, 1910), Crossman 
added : “I have seen a few Kestrels about, but have not yet been a^j^le to 
ascertain whether they belong to this or the W'estern species {C. unicolor). 
Whitlock gives a long note in the Emu, Vol. IX., p. 191, 1910, concerning 
Cerchneis cenchroides in the East Murchison, writing : “ This species was 
generally distributed throughout the district, though nowhere common. It 
was perhaps most frequent near Milly Pool, where the numerous hoUow 
eucalypts afforded convenient nesting-places. . . . The majority of the males 
of this species have a bar at the end of the tail which is very pale grey, but 
what I take to be old males have the tail nearly white and with no bar. All 
females I have seen possess the bar, and usually show fine black streaks on 
the breast. I observed no pairs breeding in old Crows’ or other open 
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