Page:The Emu volume 21.djvu/257

 Near Naretha I found live unoccupied nests of the Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uroaetus audax), one of which had broken down the tree on which it was built. All these nests were easily accessible, being built in the strongest branches of such trees as are to be found on the edge of the plain. In two cases I could touch the nest without climbing. I saw one or two pairs of fine adult birds, but could not locate an occupied nest. Many fall victims to baits intended for dingoes, which at times are very abundant.

In a slender tree-like bush near Haig I found a nest of the Little Eagle (Hieraetus pennatus). It contained a young bird nearly able to fly. I not infrequently saw pairs beating about the plain. The commonest Hawks were the Kestrel (Cerchneis cenchroides) and the Brown Hawk (Ieracidea berigora). I agree with Captain White that there is a light form and a dark form of this Hawk. On the plain the light form only is found. Some individuals hardly showed any stripes on the breast. A pair had three eggs in the fire-place of an abandoned settler's camp. A. hollow had been scratched in the hearth, and the eggs laid on a few pieces of paper and torn sacking. In a donga two nests of this species were in one tree. Kestrels were fairly common, but unless they nested on the ground in rocky situations, I am at a loss to know where they bred. At the big cave at Loongana a pair had brought up a brood in a chamber in the side of the entrance shaft.

At Naretha I found two fine nests of the common Goshawk (Astur fasciatus). Both these nests were in casuarina trees at a height of less than 20 feet. They were substantial structures of small sticks, neatly lined with green mistletoe leaves. The eggs in one case were marked with a few large blotches of deep red.

Before I left home I was looking forward with great interest to a meeting with the Cave, or Barn Owl (Tyto alba), which, after reading Captain White's notes, I had hopes might be found in equal numbers on the western side of the plain: a hope not realised. Until I got to Haig, I neither saw nor heard anything of the species. My own impression is that it is slowly spreading westward, and that its present distribution on the actual plain is due to the gradual migration of rabbits in the same direction. But rabbits, being vastly more prolific than owls, the latter are colonising the plain at a much slower rate.

At Haig on the few calm nights that occurred during my visit, I could hear the gentle "hoo, hoo" coming from all points of the compass. These notes were more frequent on calm nights when there was a young moon. It was a puzzle where these Owls roosted and bred. There were no caves or blow-holes known anywhere near to Haig, and the trees and bushes afforded no adequate shelter for roosting during daylight. The most likely, or, indeed, the only possible place, is the numerous rabbit earths. A burrowing Owl exists in North America, Speotyto cunicularia, where it has a very wide range It occupies and breeds in