It will be admitted by every one that this new species is an interesting addition to the Australian Falconidæ, a group, of which the Fauna of that country is more meagre in species than any similar extent of country known.
Forehead and line over the eye white; head and all the upper surface dark grey, washed with reddish brown; wing-coverts deep glossy black; primaries greyish brown, becoming nearly white on their webs, all but the first two or three margined with white at the tip; secondaries brownish grey on the outer web, white on the inner and at the extremity; tertiaries brownish grey; two centre tail-feathers grey; the remaining tail-feathers pale brown on their outer webs, and white on the inner; lores black; all the under surface and edge of the shoulder white; on the under surface of the wing, following the line of the bones, a broad mark of black, assuming the form of the letter V; bill black; cere and legs yellow; claws black; irides orange.
The figure is of the natural size.
LEPIDOGENYS SUBCRISTATUS: Gould
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
LEPIDOGENYS SUBCRISTATUS, Gould.
Crested Hawk.
Lepidogenys subcristatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 140; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
I regret to say that I am not sufficiently acquainted with this singular species to give any account of its habits and economy, but, judging from the feebleness of its bill and talons and the shortness of its tarsi, I conceive that it principally preys upon insects and their larvæ; and it is not improbable that honey and the larvæ of bees and ants, which abound in Australia, may form a portion of its food. Any information on this head that may have been ascertained by residents in Australia would, if made known, be of the highest interest to ornithologists, as an addition to the history of this singular form among the Falconidæ. Its extreme rarity, however, will, I fear, tend much to prevent the acquirement of this desirable information.
I saw it soaring high in the air over the plains in the neighbourhood of the Namoi, but never sufficiently near to admit of a successful shot. All the specimens I have seen were collected either at Moreton Bay or on the banks of the Clarence.
As little or no difference exists in the plumage of the specimens I have examined, I presume that the sexes are very similar.