12 
FALCONID®. 
habitat, for it is most frequently seen in that locality, and here 
also on several occasions I have discovered its nests. Its prey to 
a great extent, consists of various reptiles — such as snakes, frill¬ 
necked and sleepy lizards—it also has the singular habit of 
robbing the nests of Emus and Bustards of their eggs. My lirst 
information on this point I obtained from the blacks, and for 
some time I was inclined to disbelieve their assertion though the 
same story was told by blacks from all parts of the district, as it 
was so contrary to my experience of the Accipiter family. At 
length, however, I was compelled to alter my opinion, for I 
subsequently found portions of Emu egg shells in the nest of one 
of these Buzzards. The manner in which they effect the abstraction 
of the Emu eggs — -as told me by the blacks—shows an amount of 
cunning and sagacity that one would scarcely give the bird credit 
for, and is as follows:—‘On discovering a nest, the Buzzard 
searches about for a stone, or what is much more frequently found 
here, a hard lump of calcined earth. Armed with this the 
Buzzard returns (and should the Emu be on the nest) alights on 
the ground some distance off, and approaches with outstretched 
flapping wings, the Emu alarmed at this, to it, strange looking 
object, hastily abandons the nest and runs away, the Buzzard then 
takes quiet possession, and with the stone breaks a hole in the 
side of each egg into which it inserts its claw and carries them oft 
at its leisure ; for when the eggs are broken the Emu abandons 
the nest.’ So much for the blacks’ story 1 ” 
“ This however, is in a great measure corroborated by a friend 
of mine, who lives on the adjoining station, and who told me that 
in August last, (1 SSI) he found the nest of an Emu containing 
live eggs, and that all of them had a broken hole in the side, and 
that the fracture had been done quite recently, and in the nest 
also was one of those lumps of calcined earth about the size of a 
man’s fist.” 
“ In a nest to which I recently ascended, I found amongst the 
remains of various reptiles, the shells of a couple of Bustards’ 
e^s. In this ngst were a couple of young Buzzards lately hatched.” 
