Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/166

142 beautiful bird (Jardine's Harrier), having shot several specimens, and secured nests with eggs and young. As early as April I noticed a pair of these birds building a nest in a small tree about eight feet from the ground. This nest I visited regularly, always seeing the birds, which made slow progress with their work until the end of August, when they forsook it, although the nest was just completed. Aug. 17th, I found a nest of this bird about seven feet from the ground, in a similar tree. It contained three fresh eggs, laid on a lining of green leaves. Aug. 27th, I took one egg from another nest, considerably incubated, and next day took two young, half-grown, from a nest about twenty feet from the ground, in a white gum tree. They would have made most interesting skins, but as my native boy and I were desperately hungry and hunting for food, we lunched off the unfortunates. I always found the crops of those I shot contained Lizards only. My friend Mr. Keartland, who was naturalist for the late unfortunate Wells Expedition, says he found this bird nesting in desert gums in the far interior. Close to the last mentioned nest was a pool of some size, on which were numbers of Coots (Fulica australis), Teal (Anas punctata), and small Grebes. I shot three Rollers (Eurystomus pacificus). This pretty bird is very abundant on the Gascoyne River. Asiatic Dotterel (Cirrepidesmus asiaticus) appeared in flocks about the middle of September, which is earlier than usual, and are still here on the open plains, and occasionally on the beach. Sanderlings (Calidris arenaria) were quite common on the beach since October; I shot five on the 13th. I saw Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica) on the beach in November, but almost always singly. I shot a Golden Plover (Charadrius orientalis) last month. On Nov. 23rd I saw a White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Polioaëtus leucogaster) busy with something on the beach. On my approach it flew heavily away, with a long object trailing from its talons to the ground. This it eventually dropped, and I found it to be some species of sea-snake new to me, about 5 ft. 6 in. in length and 3 in. in diameter, still alive. I am sorry to say this noble bird will kill lambs and weakly ewes; I have caught it in the act. The same day, after some careful stalking, I shot a wader new to me. It appears to me to resemble a Purple Sandpiper, but it is many years since I last saw this bird in Iceland, when the Rev. H.H. Slater secured a specimen, and we took a nest of eggs on snow-covered mountains. Gould's handbook does not mention this bird, so I am in doubt. One day last winter I picked up, side by side, a dead White-breasted Sea-Eagle (Haliastur leucosternus) and Western Brown Hawk (Hieracidea occidentalis); they appeared to me to have fought a bitter fight, terminating fatally to both.— (Point Cloates, N.W. Australia).