Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/10

 Cases have been recorded in Europe where Kestrels, when pressed hard for food, have had recourse to young game. I have not, however, observed this habit with the Nankeen Kestrel in Victoria or Western Australia, and have had splendid opportunities of observing their habits in both States. It is said that the common Kestrel of Europe is represented by a dark resident race in countries bordering on its southern range. Allowing for a tendency towards variability in size and colouring amongst members of the genus, I think, nevertheless, that upon a comparison of the new species with that of the Eastern bird (which is identical with our coast bird) the specific differences will appear such as to justify, on sight, the above separation.

I assign the scientific name of Cerchneis unicolor to the new bird, and the vernacular name of Western Kestrel.

.—From the preceding remarks (Part I., Emu, vol. iii., p. 217) it will be gathered that most of the birds had finished nesting, or had, at least, brought out their first broods. Some, however, were still nesting, such as Glycyphila albifrons, Glycyphila fulvifrons, Ptilotis sonora, and Micrœca assimilis. I was much pleased to discover the pretty nest of the last-mentioned on our return journey, between the Mission Station and Mogumber. The nest was placed in the fork of a fallen branch of a eucalypt, which had become barkless and bleached from decay and weather. The branch was close to the main road, where vehicles and horsemen passed daily, but the traffic evidently caused the birds no grave concern. Whilst the bird sat on the nest until we approached within a yard of it, it was almost impossible to detect it, so alike were the general colours of the bird, nest, and branch.

Of nests containing young the most notable were those of Podargus strigoides and Uroactus audax. Of the former species we observed two nests, each containing two young ones. The first one was discovered in an isolated Casuarina belt on the lake country, and so closely did the nest and young resemble the surrounding branches that we should have passed within a yard of it had not the parent bird flown away and thus drawn our attention. A photograph of the nest is reproduced. The nest itself was an ill-constructed, shallow, flimsy structure, the builders having evidently relied to a great degree on the inclined fork and under twigs of the dead sapling for the strength of the structure. The second one was discovered by our driver in a