From the number of synonyms quoted above, it might readily be supposed that this bird is very common, and such is in reality the case, for it is one of the most abundant and generally dispersed of the Hawks inhabiting New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. It is a species which ranges pretty far north, but on the western coast its place appears to be supplied by the _Astur cruentus_. The country between South Australia and Moreton Bay may be considered its true habitat; and there it is a stationary resident. The Australian Goshawk is a bold, powerful, and most sanguinary species, feeding upon birds, reptiles, and small quadrupeds. It may often be seen lurking about the poultry-yard of the settler, and dealing destruction among the young stock of every kind; daring when at large, and morose and sullen when captured, it never becomes tame and familiar like the true Falcons, but retains its ferocity to the last. Its nest is usually built on a large swamp-oak (_Casuarina_), growing on the side of a brook, but I have occasionally met with it on the gum-trees (_Eucalypti_) in the forest at a considerable distance from water; it is of a large size, and is composed of sticks and lined with gum-leaves. The eggs are generally three in number, of a bluish white, smeared over with blotches of brownish buff; they are one inch and ten lines long by one inch and five lines broad. The male, which is considerably less than the female in size, has the crown of the head and nape of the neck leaden grey; on the back of the neck an obscure collar of rufous brown; the remainder of the upper surface, wings and tail deep greyish brown; the latter numerously barred with brown of a deeper tint; inner webs of the primaries and secondaries greyish white, barred with dark brown; throat greyish brown; breast and all the under surface rufous brown, crossed with numerous white fasciæ, which are bounded on each side with an obscure line of dark brown; thighs rufous, crossed by numerous irregular white lines; irides bright yellowish orange, surrounded by a yellowish lash; inside of the mouth blue, except the centre of the roof, which is black; gape and base of the bill olive-green, interspersed with hair-like feathers; tip of the cere greenish yellow; base of the mandibles pale blue; culmen and tips black; legs and feet yellow; claws black.