20 
blown, and laid on the rock without any nest, the ledge being but 
some ten or twelve feet from the base of the cliff, and was quite 
easily reached by a zigzag approach scarcely to be called a climb, 
the projecting rocks forming an easy stairway.” Dr. Holden 
visited the same place on the 26th of September, 1889, but there 
were no eggs. On the 30th of September, 1891, he writes as 
follows :—“ I took a clutch of Falcon’s eggs last Saturday, the 
26th inst., from the same spot to an inch which I robbed in 1888. 
It is not bare rock where the eggs were found, there is a covering 
of grit and detritus. In more frequented spots these birds take 
care to breed in as inaccessible places as possible, and although 
in Tasmania the Black-cheeked Falcons are numerous, their eggs 
are usually unattainable.” 
The above set of eggs are typical eggs of this species, they are 
in form rounded ovals, the isabelline ground colour of which is 
almost obscured by minute freckles, dots, spots, and irregular 
shaped blotches of deep reddish-brown; in one instance these 
markings are evenly dispersed over the surface of the shell, in 
the others they become confluent, forming a cap on the larger 
end in one specimen, and on the smaller end in another. Length 
(A) 2-12 x 1-65 inch; (B) 2-17 x 1-65 inch ; (C) 2-18 x 1-67 inch. 
This bird usually breeds on the rocky cliffs of the coast in the 
vicinity of which it is more frequently found, but the late 
Mr. Kenric Harold Bennett obtained the eggs of this Falcon for 
several seasons on Mt. Manara, an isolated rocky prominence 
rising out of a plain in the Western District of New South Wales. 
In favourable situations, with the exception of the Northern 
and North-eastern portions of the Continent, this species is found 
all over Australia. 
STRIX CANDIDA, Tickell. 
Grass Owl. 
Gould, Suppl. Bds. Auslr., fol. edit., pi. i. 
Mr. J. A. Boyd, of the Herbert River, Queensland, has kindly 
sent the following notes relative to the nidiflcation of this species : 
