to extend its range over all those portions of the Australian continent
that present situations suitable to its peculiar habits. It has been
observed along the whole southern coast, from Moreton Bay on the east to
Swan River on the west, including Tasmania and all the small islands in
Bass’s Straits. It has neither the boldness nor the courage of the
Wedge-tailed Eagle, _Aquila fucosa_, whose quarry is frequently the
Kangaroo and the Bustard; and although, at first sight, its appearance
would warrant the supposition that it pursues the same means for
obtaining living prey as the true _Pandion_, by the act of submersion,
yet I can affirm that this is not the case, and that it never plunges
beneath the surface of the water, but depends almost entirely for its
subsistence upon the dead Cetacea, fish, etc., that may be thrown up by
the sea and left on the shore by the receding waves; to which, in all
probability, are added living mollusks and other lower marine animals:
its peculiar province is consequently the sea-shore, and it especially
delights to take up its abode on the borders of small bays and inlets of
the sea, and rivers as high as they are influenced by the tide;
nevertheless, it is to be met with, though more rarely, on the borders
of lakes and inland streams, but never in the forests or sterile plains
of the interior. As it is almost invariably seen in pairs, it would
appear to be permanently mated; each pair inhabiting a particular bay or
inlet, to the exclusion of others of the same species. Unless disturbed
or harassed, the White-bellied Sea-eagle does not shun the abode of man,
but becomes fearless and familiar. Among the numerous places in which I
observed it was the Cove of Sydney, where one or two were daily seen
performing their aërial gyrations above the shipping and over the tops
of the houses: if I mistake not, they were the same pair of birds that
found a safe retreat in Elizabeth Bay, skirting the property of
Alexander Macleay, Esq., and where they might be frequently seen perched
on the bare limb of a tree by the water’s edge, forming an interesting
and ornamental addition to the scene. In Tasmania it is especially
abundant in D’Entrecasteaux Channel, and along the banks of the Derwent
and the Tamar; and there was scarcely one of the little islets in Bass’s
Straits but was inhabited by a pair of these birds, which, in these
cases, subsisted in a great measure on the Petrels and Penguins, which
resort there in great numbers to breed, and which are very easily
captured.
With regard to the nidification of the White-bellied Sea-eagle, I could
not fail to remark how readily the birds accommodate themselves to the
different circumstances in which they are placed; for while on the main
land they invariably construct their large flat nest on a fork of the
most lofty trees, on the islands, where not a tree is to be found, it is
placed on the flat surface of a large stone, the materials of which it
is formed being twigs and branches of the Barilla, a low shrub which is
there plentiful. While traversing the woods in Recherche Bay, I observed
a nest of this species near the top of a noble stringy bark tree
(_Eucalyptus_), the bole of which measured forty-one feet round, and was
certainly upwards of 200 feet high; this had probably been the site of a
nest for many years, being secure even from the attacks of the natives,
expert as they are at climbing. On a small island, of about forty acres
in extent, opposite the settlement of Flinders, I shot a fully-fledged
young bird, which was perched upon the cone of a rock; and I then, for
the first time, discovered my error in characterizing, in the
“Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,” and in my “Synopsis,”
the bird in this state as a different species, under the name of
_Haliæetus sphenurus_, an error which I take this opportunity to
correct. The eggs are almost invariably two in number, of a dull white,
faintly stained with reddish brown, two inches and nine lines long, by
two inches and three lines broad.
This Sea-eagle may be frequently seen floating about in the air above
its hunting ground, in circles, with the tips of its motionless wings
turned upwards; the great breadth and roundness of the pinions, and the
shortness of the neck and tail, giving it no inapt resemblance to a
large butterfly.
The sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is considerably larger
than her mate.
Adults have the head, neck, all the under surface, and the terminal
third of the tail-feathers white; primaries and base of the tail
blackish brown, the remainder of the plumage grey; irides dark brown;
bill bluish horn-colour, with the tip black; cere, lores, and horny
space over the eye bluish lead-colour slightly tinged with green; legs
and feet yellowish white; nails black.
The young have the head, back of the neck and throat light buff; all the
upper surface and wings light chocolate-brown, each feather tipped with
buffy white; tail light buffy white at the base, passing into deep brown
towards the tip, which is white; chest brown, each feather margined with
buff; abdomen mingled buff and brown, the latter colour occupying the
margins of the feathers; under tail-coverts, and the under surface of
the tail-feathers white; bill brown; feet yellowish white.
The Plate represents an old and a young bird, the former about half the
natural size.
[Illustration:
HALIASTUR LEUCOSTERNUS.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
HALIASTUR LEUCOSTERNUS, _Gould_.
White-breasted Sea-Eagle.
_White-breasted Rufous Eagle_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. i. p. 218.
_Haliæëtus leucosternus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p.
138; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_Girrenera_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Me-ne-̏u-roo_, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.
In size and in the general markings of its plumage, this beautiful
species is more closely allied to the _Falco Ponticerianus_ of Latham,
than to any other; but the total absence of the coloured stripe down the
centre of the white feathers which clothe the head, neck and breast of
the Australian bird, at once distinguishes it from its Indian ally.
The White-breasted Sea Eagle is very common on the northern and eastern
portions of Australia, where it takes up its abode in the most secluded
and retired parts of bays and inlets of the sea. Upon one occasion only
did I meet with it within the colony of New South Wales, but I have
several times received specimens from Moreton Bay; the individual
alluded to above was observed soaring over the brushes of the Lower
Hunter. The chief food of this species is fish, which it captures either
by plunging down or by dexterously throwing out its foot while flying
close to the surface of the water; such fish as swim near the surface
being of course the only ones that become a prey to it: sometimes the
captured fish is borne off to the bird’s favourite perch, which is
generally a branch overhanging the water, while at others, particularly
if the bird be disturbed, it is borne aloft in circles over the head of
the intruder and devoured while the bird is on the wing, with apparent
ease. Its flight is slow and heavy near the ground, but at a
considerable elevation it is easy and buoyant.
“This species,” says Mr. Gilbert in his notes from Port Essington, “is
pretty generally spread throughout the Peninsula and the neighbouring
islands, and may be said to be tolerably abundant. It breeds from the
beginning of July to the end of August. I succeeded in finding two
nests, each of which contained two eggs, but I am told that three are
sometimes found. The nest is formed of sticks with fine twigs or coarse
grass as a lining; it is about two feet in diameter and built in a
strong fork of the dead part of a tree: both of those I found were about
thirty feet from the ground and about two hundred yards from the beach.
The eggs, which are two inches and two lines in length by one inch and
eight lines in breadth, are of a dirty white, having the surface spread
over with numerous hair-like streaks and very minute dots of reddish
brown, the former prevailing and assuming the form of hieroglyphics;
these singular markings being most numerous at one end, sometimes at the
larger at others at the smaller, the difference even occurring in the
two eggs of the same nest.”
The sexes are so much alike in colour that it is by the greater size of
the female alone that they are to be distinguished; the young, on the
other hand, differ considerably from the adult.
Head, neck, chest and upper part of the abdomen snow white; back, wings,
lower part of the abdomen, thighs, upper and under tail-coverts rich
chestnut red; first six primaries chestnut at the base and black at the
tip; tail-feathers chestnut red on their upper surface, lighter beneath,
the eight central feathers tipped with greyish white; irides light
reddish yellow; cere pale yellowish white; orbits smoke-grey; upper
mandible light ash-grey at the base, passing into sienna-yellow and
terminating at the tip in light horn-colour; under mandible smoke-grey;
tarsi cream-yellow, much brighter on all the large scales on the front
of the tarsi and toes.
The figures are those of an adult and a young bird two-thirds of the
natural size.
[Illustration:
HALIASTUR? SPHENURUS.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
HALIASTUR? SPHENURUS.
Whistling Eagle.
_Milvus sphenurus_, Vieill. 2nde Edit, du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat.,
tom. xx. p. 564.—Ibid. Gal. des Ois., tom. i. p. 41. pl. 15.—Ibid.
Ency. Méth. Orn., Part III. p. 1204.
_Haliæetus canorus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
187.—Gould, in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_Moru and Wirwin_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_En-̏na-jook_, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.
_J̏an-doo_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
_Whistling Hawk_, Colonists of New South Wales.
_Little Swamp Eagle_, Colonists of Western Australia.
This species of Eagle has been observed in every portion of Australia
yet visited by Europeans, but is more abundant in New South Wales than
in any other part of the continent; I have never yet seen an example
from Van Diemen’s Land, and I am consequently led to believe that it
rarely if ever visits that island. As might be expected from its almost
universal diffusion, the _Haliastur? sphenurus_ is not a migratory bird;
at least in New South Wales it is equally as numerous in summer as it is
in winter; not that it is to be observed in the same locality at all
times, the greater or lesser abundance of its favourite food inducing it
to wander from one district to another, wherever the greatest supply is
to be procured. Displaying none of the courage or intrepidity of the
true Eagles, it never attacks animals of a large size; but preys upon
carrion, small and feeble quadrupeds, birds, lizards, insects and fish,
and while on the one hand it is the pest of the poultry yard, on the
other no species of the _Falconidæ_ effects more good during the fearful
visitations of the caterpillar, a scourge of no infrequent occurrence in
Australia. In 1839 it was my lot to witness the inroad of vast swarms of
caterpillars in the region of the Upper Hunter River, and at the same
time I observed many hundreds of the Whistling Eagle assembled on the
Downs near Scone preying solely on them, thus tending in a great measure
to check their progress, and certainly to lessen their numbers; so
partial, in fact, is the Whistling Eagle to this kind of food that the
appearance of one is the certain prelude to the appearance of the other.
The _Haliastur? sphenurus_ is little alarmed by the presence of man, and
when sitting on the branches of low trees, will often admit of a near
approach even to within a few feet: as an evidence of its indifference,
I may mention that, having winged a very rare Tern on the surface of a
lagoon, a Whistling Eagle immediately descended and carried it off; and
although this circumstance took place at a very short distance from me,
neither the shouts of the natives nor of myself deterred the Eagle from
bearing off the bird in triumph, to my extreme vexation. It is generally
to be seen in pairs, inhabiting alike the brushes near the coast and the
forests of the interior of the country. It is incessantly hovering over
the harbours, and sides of rivers and lagoons, for any floating animal
substance that may present itself on the surface of the water or be cast
on the banks; and it is nowhere more common or more generally to be seen
than over the harbour of Port Jackson. Its flight, when high in the air,
is buoyant and easy, and it frequently soars to a great altitude,
uttering at the same time a shrill whistling cry, from which
circumstance it has obtained from the colonists the name of the
Whistling Hawk, and by which it is at once distinguished from all the
other members of the family inhabiting Australia.
The nest, which is constructed of sticks and fibrous roots, is
frequently built on the topmost branches of the lofty _Casuarinæ_,
growing by the sides of creeks and rivers. The eggs, which are laid
during the months of November and December, are usually two in number,
but sometimes single; they are two inches and three lines long by one
inch and nine lines broad, and are of a bluish white slightly tinged
with green, the few brown markings with which they are varied being very
obscure and appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. I once
found a nest of this species in the side of which had been constructed
that of the beautiful little Finch called _Amadina Lathami_, and both
birds sitting on their respective eggs close beside each other; and both
would doubtless have reared their progenies had I not robbed the nests
of their contents to enrich my collection.
The Whistling Eagle presents the usual difference in the size of the
sexes, but in respect to colour no variation is observable; the plumage
of the young, on the contrary, as shown by the front figure on the
Plate, presents a striking contrast to that of the adult, rendering it
by far the handsomer bird during the first autumn of its existence.
Head, neck and all the under surface light sandy brown, each feather
margined with a darker colour; feathers of the back and wings brown,
margined with greyish white; primaries blackish brown; tail greyish
brown; cere and bill brownish white, gradually becoming darker towards
the tip of the latter; legs pale bluish white; irides bright hazel.
The figures represent an old and a young bird about two-thirds of the
natural size.
[Illustration:
PANDION LEUCOCEPHALA: _Gould_
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
PANDION LEUCOCEPHALUS, _Gould_.
White-headed Osprey.
_Pandion leucocephalus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 138;
and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_Yoon-dȍor-doo_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western
Australia.
_Jȍor-joot_, Aborigines of Port Essington.
_Little Fish Hawk_, Colonists of New South Wales.
_Fish Hawk_, Colonists of Swan River.
The White-headed Osprey, though not an abundant species, is generally
diffused over every portion of Australia suited to its habits; I myself
shot it in Recherche Bay, at the extreme south of Van Diemen’s Land; and
Mr. Gilbert found it breeding both at Swan River on the western, and at
Port Essington on the northern shores of Australia. Like its near allies
of Europe and America, of which it is a beautiful representative in the
southern hemisphere, it takes up its abode on the borders of rivers,
lakes, inlets of the sea, and the small islands lying off the coast. Its
food consists entirely of living fish, which it procures precisely after
the manner of the other members of the genus, by plunging down upon its
victim from a considerable height in the air with so true an aim as
rarely to miss its object, although an immersion to a great depth is
sometimes necessary to effect its accomplishment. Its prey when secured
is borne off to its usual resting-place and devoured at leisure.
Wilson’s elegant description of the habits and manners of the American
bird is in fact equally descriptive of those of the present species.
Independently of its white head, this species differs from its near
allies in the much lighter colouring of the tarsi, which are yellowish
white slightly tinged with grey.
The nest being of great size is a very conspicuous object; it is
composed of sticks varying from the size of a finger to that of the
wrist, and lined with the softer kinds of sea-weed. It is usually placed
on the summit of a rock, but is sometimes constructed on the top of a
large _Eucalyptus_; always in the vicinity of water. A nest observed by
Mr. Gilbert in Rottnest Island measured fifteen feet in circumference.
The eggs are two in number, of a yellowish white, boldly spotted and
blotched with deep rich reddish brown, which colour in some specimens is
so dark as to be nearly black; other specimens again are clouded with
large blotches of purple, which appear as if beneath the surface of the
shell. The medium length of the eggs is two inches and five lines, and
the breadth one inch and nine lines.
When near the water its flight is heavy and flapping, but when soaring
aloft at a great altitude its actions are the most easy and graceful
imaginable, at one moment appearing motionless, and at another
performing a series of beautiful curves and circles, apparently for mere
enjoyment; for from the great height at which they are executed it is
hardly to be conceived that the bird can be watching the motions of its
finny prey in the waters beneath.
Crown of the head, back of the neck, throat, abdomen, thighs and under
tail-coverts white; feathers of the chest mottled with brown, and with a
dark brown mark down the centre; ear-coverts and sides of the neck dark
brown; back, wings and tail clove brown, each feather of the back with a
narrow circle of white at its extremity; primaries black; bill black;
cere and base of the bill bluish lead-colour; feet pale bluish white;
irides primrose-yellow in some, bright orange in others; claws black.
The figure is about two-thirds of the natural size.
[Illustration:
FALCO HYPOLEUCOS: _Gould_
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
FALCO HYPOLEUCUS, _Gould_.
Grey Falcon.
_Falco hypoleucus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 162.
_Boorh-ga_, Aborigines of Moore’s River in Western Australia.
Of this rare and beautiful Falcon I have seen only four examples, three
of which are in my own collection, and the fourth in that of the Earl of
Derby. The specimen from which my description in the “Proceedings of the
Zoological Society” was taken, was presented to Mr. Gilbert by Mr. L.
Burgess, who stated that he had killed it over the mountains, about
sixty miles from Swan River; subsequently it was obtained by Mr. Gilbert
himself in the vicinity of Moore’s River in Western Australia; and my
friend Captain Sturt had the good fortune to secure a male and a female
during his late adventurous journey into the interior of South
Australia. “They were shot at the Depôt on a Sunday in May 1845, just
after service; they had been soaring very high, but at length one
descended to the trees on the creek, and coming within range was shot;
when the other proceeding to look after its companion was also killed.
It must be a scarce bird, for no others were seen.”
The acquisition of the _Falco hypoleucus_ is highly interesting, as
adding another species to the true or typical Falcons, and as affording
another proof of the beautiful analogies which exist between certain
groups of the southern and northern hemispheres; this bird being as
clearly a representative of the Jerfalcon of Europe, as the _Falco
melanogenys_ is of the Peregrine, and the _Falco frontatus_ of the
Hobby; but as I have more fully entered into this subject in my
observations on the genus, it is unnecessary again to detail them here.
The adult has the whole of the upper and under surface and wings grey,
with a narrow line of black down the centre of each feather; a narrow
ring of black nearly surrounding the eyes; primaries brownish black,
which colour assumes a pectinated form on a mottled grey ground on the
inner webs of those feathers; tail-coverts grey, barred with brownish
grey; tail dark brownish grey, crossed with bars of dark brown; irides
dark brown; cere, orbits, gape, base of the bill, legs and feet
brilliant orange-yellow; the yellow becoming paler from the base of the
bill, until it meets the black tips of both mandibles; claws black.
The young birds have the upper surface mottled brown and grey, and the
under surface nearly white, and more strongly marked with black than in
the adult.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.
[Illustration:
FALCO MELANOGENYS: _Gould_.
_J. & E. Gould del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
FALCO MELANOGENYS, _Gould_.
Black-cheeked Falcon.
_Falco Peregrinus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 183.
_Falco melanogenys_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 139; and
in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
_Blue Hawk_, Colonists of Western Australia.
_Wolga_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Gwet-ul-bur_, Aborigines of the mountain and lowland districts of
Western Australia.
The present bird, like the _F. hypoleucus_, may be classed among the
noble Falcons, being closely allied both to the Peregrine of Europe and
the Duck-Hawk of North America, to both of which it assimilates also in
its bold and rapacious habits, a character which renders it a favourite
with the Aborigines, who admire it for its courage in attacking and
conquering birds much larger than itself. Like its American congener it
preys eagerly upon ducks, and Mr. Gilbert informs me that he has seen it
attack and carry off the _Nyroca Australis_, a species at least half as
heavy again as itself. Thus we find in this Falcon a bird well adapted
for the sport of Falconry, which though fallen into disuse in Europe,
may at some future time be revived in this new and rising country, since
its lagoons and water-courses are well stocked with herons and cranes,
and its vast plains are admirably suited to such pastime. The
introduction of hounds for the purpose of chasing the native dog (Dingo)
and the Kangaroo has already taken place in Australia, and perhaps it is
not too much to look forward to the time when the noble science of
Falconry shall be resorted to by the colonists. A finer mews of birds
could not be formed in any country than in Australia, with such typical
Falcons as the _F. hypoleucus_, _F. melanogenys_ and _F. frontatus_.
The present bird is universally dispersed over the whole southern
portion of Australia, including Van Diemen’s Land, and probably future
research will discover that its range extends over all parts of the
continent. It gives preference to steep rocky cliffs, and the sides of
precipitous gullies, rather than to fertile and woodland districts, but
especially seeks such rocky localities as are washed by the sea, or are
in the neighbourhood of inland lakes and rivers. In such situations it
dwells in pairs throughout the year, much after the manner of the
Peregrine. Its nest is placed in those parts of the rocks that are most
precipitous and inaccessible. The eggs are two in number; their
ground-colour is buff, but which is scarcely perceptible from the
predominance of the blotching of deep reddish chestnut, with which it is
marbled all over; they are two inches and one line long, by one inch and
seven and a half lines broad.
The stomach is large and membranous; and the food consists of birds,
principally of the Duck tribe.
The sexes present the usual difference in size, the male being
considerably smaller than the female, as will be seen in the
accompanying illustration.