THE BIEDS OF AUSTEALIA. 
swoop I heard the cry of a creature in pain, and presently from out the rushes 
dashed a Trihonyx. Each Harrier took it in turn to assail her and strike 
her on the head. The poor bird came straight to the forest, evidently 
making for a patch of bracken fern. She seemed to be getting weaker, so I 
ran forward and scared her molesters away. They flew across to the far side of 
the lagoon, and the Native Hen travelled at high speed and disappeared among 
the bracken. I have so often noted with Native Hens that when attacked 
or frightened they immediately leave the shelter of the reeds and rushes and 
run across country. A favourite dodge is to run straight along a line of 
fencing.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian confirms this hunting habit thus : “ From my 
observations I have come to the conclusion that many ground birds, especially 
Quail, are destroyed by them. I have often watched them beating up and 
down a field and then make a sudden dash and secure some small bird. I once 
watched for an hour two of the birds attacking a hare. It was blowing 
very hard from the north, and in turn these birds would rise and then 
would swoop down on their prey. Each time the hare would shift and the wind 
carry the bird right past. The hare would not run (as this would have given 
the birds the chance they wanted), but only moved two or three yards and 
then would sit bolt upright and wait for the next swoop. The birds tired 
and left the hare alone.” 
Red Goshawk . . . . . . . . Erythrotriorchis radiatus, ante, p. 87. 
Mr. J. B. White’s notes, written about 1875, read : “ In a residence of 
some twelve years in the Mitchell District, Central Queensland, I never saw 
this bird on the open plains and downs to the west of the dividing ranges, but 
it is thinly scattered throughout the forest country between that range and 
the sea and nowhere common. I have only twice met with its nest, once 
on the bank of Mimosa creek, a tributary of the Dawson, in November 1870, 
situated at the top of an immense inaccessible gum-tree and containing one 
young bird about half grown : from this nest I shot the female, but left the 
male to rear the young bird, which he succeeded in doing. In November 
1873 I found another nest also containing one young bird only, and from 
which I shot the female also, but did not see the male ; this nest was on the 
banks of Spring Creek, a tributary of the Nogoa River, part of the same 
watershed as the other but 100 miles from it. This nest was an old one, but 
had been relined and repaired: it was a large flat structure of sticks, and 
contained only the young bird and the remains of a common white cockatoo 
lately killed ; the young bird was covered with white down with the feathers 
412 
