Identifier: CompanionGoulds00Digg (find matches)
Title: Companion to Gould's Handbook; or, Synopsis of the birds of Australia. Containing nearly one-third of the whole, or about 220 examples, for the most part from the original drawings
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Diggles, Silvester Gould, John, 1804-1881. Handbook to the birds of Australia
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Brisbane, Thorne & Greenwell
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
, li; tarsus, 2^. This elegant species is found in New South Wales and Queensland. It may at times be observed in the open forest country,but its favorite resort is the dense scrubs. Considerable controversy has been awakened as to whether the white Astur (A. N. H. Albino) isor is not a variety of the present species. The measurements of the two are precisely similar; but the fact that in Tasmania the white oneonly is to be found would seem to give great weight to the supposition that the latter is certainly a permanent variety, if not a species. Imust add, however, that on one occasion I saw a white and a grey bird of this genus (evidently a pair) flying together in company, thesmallest, or the male, being the white one. The food of this Astur consists of birds and small mammalia. It occasionally attacks the poultryyard, and carries off young fowls. It makes its nest, composed only of sticks, in trees, forty or fifty feet from the ground. The eggs are twoin number ; skin, milk white.
Text Appearing After Image:
BUTEO MELANOSTERNON Slack .lorea.steol B>U2 iia-r d . BUTEO MELANOSTEENON. (Black-hreasted Buzzard.) Crown and sides of the head, chin, chest, and middle of the abdomen, deep black, passing into chestnut red on the flanks ; thighs and undertail coverts, rufous; back of the head and neck, chestnut red—the centre of each feather, black; shoulders, buif; upper surface, brownishblack—each feather margined with chestnut; primaries, white at the base, the remaining portion black ; cere, purplish flesh color; irides,light brown ; feet, whitish, with a tinge of lilac. The sexes are alike, but the female is the smallest. Length, 22 inches ; wing, 19^ ; tail, 8^ ; bill (around the curve of cutting edge), 2 ; tarsus 2f. This well marked and elegant bird is the only species at present known of the genus to which it belongs inhabiting Australia,and to which it is also exclusively confined. It is of great rarity, though frequenting parts of the continent far removed from one another,but more

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