FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FORSCIENCE 1 LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, SYDNEY, SPECIAL CATALOGUE, No. 1. ■■-<.-r/\S. , y--/ ; NESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS FOUND BREEDING IN AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA. BY ALFRED J. NORTH, C.M.Z.S., Colonial Memhcy of the British Onuthologists' Union, Comspondin)^ Fdlow of the American Ornithologists' Union. ORNITHOLOGIST TO THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. (SECOND EDITION OF CATALOGUE No. XII., ENTIRELY RE-WRITTEN, WITH ADDITIONS). Volume IV. Printed by order of the Trustees of the Australian Museum. R. Etheridgc, Juur., J. P., Curator. SYDNEY. F. W. WHITE, GENERAL PRINTER, 344 KENT STREET. 1913-1914. / 11 ■(^IlE dates of publication of the parts comprising the X'olunie are as under: — PART I., pages 1 - '.m;, plates B. XVII., B. XVIII i'Jnd January, 1913 II., pages 97 - 200, plate B. XIX ."'th June, 1913 „ [II., pages -201 ^300, plates A. 18, B. XX., B.XXI., B. XXII., 30th October, 1913 „ IV., pages 301-411, plates A. 19, A. 20 22nd June, 1914 „ \'., pages 413-472, plates B. XXIII., B. XXIW, B. XXV., 17th December, 1914. liNTRODUCTlON. '5 Ullu. CUJ. 10 /Tf^lIE present and conchidiii;^ N'olume contains descriptions of the Nests and E;j;f,'s of one hundred and thii ty-se\en species of Australian and Tasmanian Birds, and is partly based on the collection in the Australian Museum, and the remainder chiefly on private collec- tions. The birds enumerated belong to the (Jrders Platai.e.k, Herodioxes, Chexomorph.e, CoLUMD.E, Gallin'.e, H i; m 1 1'l h m I, I'rijCAKLE, ALECTOkiDi:s, Li.MicoL.E, Gavi.e, Tubinares, PvGOPODEs, Impennes and Casiakii. In addition twenty-two species of Australian Birds' Nests and Eg^s are described in an Appendix. .\s in the previous \'olumes, by the loan of specimens and the contribution of information, considerable assistance has been received from many \alued correspondents, whose names appear in the work-. With some few exceptions the nomenclature is similar to that used by the authors of the " Catalo,i;ues of Birds in the British Museum," and to whom I here aclcnowledge my indebtedness. The iigures of eggs, which are of the natural size, have been reproduced by the heliotype process at the Government l-'rinting Ofhce, from photographs of the originals talcen under the direction of tlie Government Printer, Mr. W. .\. Gullick, and the personal supervision of Mr. A. E. Dyer. The original drawings of birds, from which the figures have been reproduced, were made by the late Mr. Neville Cayley, who is also responsible for colouring the plates of eggs in the coloured copies. P"or assistance by the donation of photographs of nests, nesting-places and breeding haunts, I am chiefly indebted to the late Mr. H. P. C. Ashworth, Dr. W. Macgillivray and Mr. Cieorge Savidge, but the names of each from whom the photographs were received will be found throughout the work. A.J.N. SvDXEV, Dcccmher, I'll I. Systematic Contents to Vol. IV. Order PLATALE.E. Family Ibididae 1. Iius luoluica . . . 2. Cakphibis spiiiiiolln 3. Plkcaius ... fahiiidhis Family Ardeidas 6. Miisoi'Hovx pluniifti'a... 7. HliKODIAS... tiiiiiiiiiiisii 8. No riii'imvx iioViT-lioUaudhr pcU'lfU'iJ g. Dli.MIKr.KKTTA sncra 10. Nycticorax calcdonicns Family Anatidae Sub-family Csgxin.e ... 16. Chijxdpis ... atrata Sub-family Axatin.k ... 17. Axsi:kaxas uinipalinatii Sub-family Pi.ixtkopthrin.t, 18. Nl-.TTOI'US pIlL lull IIS Sub-family Ci;keopsix.k 19. Ci;ki:opsis uovir-liolland'uT ... Sub-family Chijnonettin.e . 20. Ciii;n'()xetta jnliata r AG E . I Family Plataleidas I 4. Platai.ha I I'cgia 5 5. PlATIBIS ... 5 flavipcs . . . 10 10 Order tIERODIONES. '9 1 1. Bl'TORIDKS ly itiii;uatilis 19 12. .AkDin'TA ... 21 ptisillii 21 '3- Dl'PETOR ... 23 t^oiiItU 23 14- BOTAURUS 27 pivciloptiliii 30 Family Ciconiidae 30 Sub -family Cicdxiix.e a 15- Xexorhynchus 33 nsiiitiiiis ... Order CHENOMORPH.E. Sub-order Anseres. 5- 52 52 52 55 55 55 58 58 58 60 60 60 62 62 62 Sub-family Anatin.e ... 21. Dexiirocvgxa arciidUi cvtoiii 22. Casakca ... tadoyiioides 23. Tadorxa ... nifitcri;inii 24. .AXAS supcniliosa 25. Nettiox ... castaneiun gibbei'ifrans 26. Spat II I. a ... rhyiiihotis 27. Malacoruvxchus memhranaceus 'AGE 12 12 12 14 14 37 37 40 40 42 42 45 45 47 47 47 47 66 66 66 68 70 70 72 72 74 74 77 77 79 82 82 84 «4 SVSTKMATIC CONTKNTH TO VOL. IV. 2.S. Stictom;tta luevoid Sub-family F i' licit. in.e 2y. NvROC,\ dust fill ti ... Family Treronidae ... Sub- family I'ni.oi'onix.E 32. PlTLDI'U.S ... su'tiiiisoni... supi'rhns ... ^^. MliCALOl'Khl'l A iihii;in/lca... tissiiiiilis ... Sub- family C ARPOPiiAr.iN.K 34. MVRISTICIVORA ... spilorvlnia 35. LOI'HOI-.KMUS aniarcticns Family Columbidae ... Sub-family Coi.uiibin.t, 3*1. COLUMIU ... Icucotiicia ... Sub- family MACKOP^"GII^■.F, ^7. Macrriin.1': ... 271 • •■ 253 73. Zoniii;k ... ... 271 ... 256 tricolor ... ... 271 256 74. .Fl.IAI.lTlS ... 275 ... 256 nificapilla •■• 275 ... 260 mclaiiops ... ... 279 . . . 260 ciicullata ... ... 283 . . . 260 Sub-family l^ELToiiVATis.it ... ... 286 ... 260 75. Pei.tohyas ... 2S6 ... 262 australis ... ... 286 SYSTEMATIC CONTKNTS TO VOL. IV. VII. Sub-lainily I Iiman topodin.i-; 76. HiMANTOI'US latcocephnltis 77. Recurvirostra ... t!OVcr-Iiollaiidi,r . . . Family Laridae Sub-family SxiiUNiN.-E 79. liVDROCHELIDON hybvida ... 80. Gelochelidon inacvoinrsa Si. Hvdkopkocne caspia 82. Sterna gracilis . . . iiudia hcygit inelanorliyuclia aiursihda... fuUqinosa nielanaticlien nereis sinensis . . . Family Procellariidae Sub-lamily Ocianitinin* 8g. Ph. EA<;,oi>i 321 Sub-family Larin.e 322 87. Lari's ■ 32'^ novie-Itollandicc .. • 330 • 33-2 88. Gauiani's . . m pacificiis ... PAGE. 297 297 297 Order TUBINARES. 356 356 35'^ 35*' 35« 35« 358 358 361 3^7 371 gl. GiSTRKLATA Icncoptera Sub-family Fi'emarin.« 92. Prion brevirostris Family Pelecanoididae 93. Pei.ecanoiuks urinatri.x ... Family Diomedeidaj ... 94. Thai.assogeron ... canlns Order PYGOPODES. },'i2i PoDiciPEs — (continued). ,g-, poUocepliahis ■■■ 383 ' eristatns Order IMPENNES. Family Spheniscidse g6. EUDVPTULA minor 335 335 337 337 340 340 343 345 345 347 347 347 352 352 372 372 374 374 374 375 376 376 378 378 378 386 389 392 392 392 SYSTEMATIC CONTENTS TO VOL. IV. Family Casuadidae 97. CaSI'AKU'S (Jlislllllis ... Order CASUAHII. I'Af.E. 395 395 Family Dromaeidae 98. Drom--f,us... iioViT-holhvidhr 398 398 398 ^iPi^EisriDix. I'l'ionodnvii iitnioiiiDnci .'^ii'iippinifs dcntii'nstns CoUyi'iocuula howni Grauciiliis Uncatus Mvin,L;i'd latii'Listns Pitiilodrvas pulveiuknta „ dlhigiiliiris Ciiu'losoiiui luarj^inaiiini .[ijiytis iihiiriniis... ( )yi-iiscopiis gutini'alis Cidamauthns montancllus 413 I'luiiyccplia/a liiiioidis ■■ 430 415 .Mt'inittii laicoptera •• 432 416 Ptiloiis filigcra ... •• 433 417 faiciflgularis •• 434 419 Tiichodevc iOckci'iUi •• 435 420 Zouicginthiis ociilatiii •• 437 422 Collocalia francica •• 43« 423 A hvonc piisil/d ... •• 441 425 Porphyroccphahis. spurius .. 442 427 CathctHvus pnrpui'cicollis •• 444 429 .-{ rdtil SlUllclll'dlld ■• 445 Ihe accompanying part of the Australian Museum Catalogue of " Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tas- mania " (Vol. iv, part 5) completes the work. Part I. of Volume IV. is issued herewith. It contains the Famih'es Ibidid/e and Plataleid^ of the Order Platale*; ; the Families .Vrdeid.k and Ciconiid,'e, helonginj,' to the Order Herodiones; and the Sub-families Cygnin/E, Anseranatin^, Plectropterin.e, Cereopsin.*;, Chenonettin/e, Anatix.*, P'uligulin/e and Erimasturin^ of the Family Anatid^, which comprise the representatives of the Order Chexomorph.i-; in Australia. As in the previous Parts the illustrations of birds are reproduced from drawings made by the late Mr. Neville Cayley. The figures of eggs, which are of the natural size, were reproduced by the heliotype process at the Government Printing Office, from photographs of the specimens taken under the direction of the Government Printer and the supervision of Mr. A. E. EIver; Miss A. E. Potter being responsible for hand-colouring the Plates of Eggs in the coloured copies. The first thirty- two pages and the Systematic Contents of Vol. III. were printed off during Mr. North's absence in Victoria, consi quently he had no opportunity of revising the proofs. Part II. is in the press. R. ETHERIDGE, , ,, , Curator. .Austkall^.n Museum, Sydney, 22Hd Janmi'y, 1913. VIII. SYSTK ( laniily Casuariidas 97. CaSI'AKU'S duslmlis ... J^FFlElt be destroyed in a \ery short time, and yet to all appearance they make very little impression upon this plague. When one thinks what might be if there were no Ibis to help us I probably the whole country would be ruined in a very few years. ' From an interesting and exhaustive account sent me by Mr. S. Robinson, of Dathurst, I have extracted the following: — "lam forwarding you an account of two species of Ibis, the Straw-necked and White, I found breeding towards the latter end of 1896, near Buckiinguy, New South Wales. (Jn my first trip there in Septemljer 1 noticed the birds fairly numerous, all making their way to the marshes. The first opportunity I rode out to see, but there not being a great deal of water on marshes or plains, I came to the conclusion that they were only looking for a nesting-place, but as the river was rising fast I felt sure they would breed no great distance away, and when leaving for home I ask'ed my son to keep a good look out every week, and let me know the result, but he did not succeed in discovering their breeding-place, so I made up my mind to go again. After riding a few miles I found the nesting site, but sucli a place to get too I never experienced before — water from one to live feet deep, with Polv^omiin growing below and above water, and on the tops were the nests made of rushes, old dry grass, and leaves ; some of the nests contained three eggs, others young in all stages of growth, while others were in course of construction. I got a good number of eggs of both White and Straw- necked Ibis; also Plovers, Rails, Crakes, Night Herons, White-fronted Herons, White-necked Herons, Spoonbills, Coots, Darters, Swans and Ducks of numerous species. On my way home, for I was three days going, I fell in with another deserted Ibis rookery, and the Crows were having a great feast, thousands of them eating the young and eggs. The water here had all drained away, as the river was falling, otherwise the place was an ideal one, quiet and retired, with no one to disturb them." Writing from Yandembah Station, near Booligal, New South Wales, the late Mr. K. H. Bennett remarked : — " Gcroiiticiis spinicoUis is a constant resident in this locality, but in some years it appears in much greater numbers than others, assembling on the open plains in flocks of thousands. It breeds here during the periodical inundations of the Lachlan River, when the immense areas of Polygonum, or reed beds, bordering the lower part of the river are submerged. I know of two of their breeding places on the Lachlan River. One is situated in a dense Polvgonum swamp, and the other in a large reed-bed. In both instances the Polygonum and the reeds had been brok'en down by the liirds, forming a kind of platform just above the water, on which the nests, almost touching each other, were placed. The nests were formed of Polygonum, reeds and a'|u;Uic lierbaj^e, and were about the same size as that of a Crow. A friend of mine on the JJanks Station, who has resided for many years near one of these breeding places of tiie Straw-necked Ibis, inlornied me that lormerly when the Abori,L;ines were numerous they would come fiom loni,' distances durinf:; the breeding season, usually in ( )ctober and November, and feast for a long time on the eggs and young birds. He frequently accompanied the natives in their canoes on their egg-collecting e.xpeditions, and the number of eggs that would be brought back' to their camp was something enormous, not alone those of the Straw-necked Ibis, but numerous other a(iuatic birds. As the canoes would be fairly laden, and a much larger (|uantity brought back than could be consumed at once, a curious process was resorted to to keep them. A long trench about eighteen niches deep and wide was dug out of the sandy soil, the bottom covered with grass, on which the eggs were placed until the trench was nearly filled, more grass was then put on top of the eggs, and the whole covered with sand. This was a kind of store-room in which the eggs kept for a long period, and they were taken out as required. At the latter end of August, i88t), a remarkably wet season, I noticed a large number of the Ibis busily employed in preparing a place for building, by trampling down the tops of the large spiny and angular-stemmed bush that grows in large patches, touching one another in some of the swamps here on the station. These bushes are about eighteen inches above the water, and the Ibis alight on top of them, and by their collective weight and trampling about tread down the bushes into a strong connected platform, on which to place their nests. On the lytli September I visited the swamp in the hope of obtaining some Ibis eggs, liut to my surprise, although they had completed scores of nests, the birds had for some unknown cause entirely deserted the place. I noticed, however, that the little Pink-eared Duck had, in several instances taken possession of the deserted nests of the Ibis, one of which, with the full set of Duck eggs and their en\elope of down, I brought away." From Melbourne, \'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me: — "Large flocks of Straw- necked Ibis follow the grasshoppers into Southern Victoria, and for weeks at a time may be seen wandering about the open forest or grass paddocks in pursuit of their food, but in the large swamps near the Murray River at Koonbrook, and also at Lake Charm, they breed freely. They are particularly numerous at all the waterholes near the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia." Dr. Ernest A. I)'(Jmbrain, of Sydney, has sent me the following notes : — " The Ibis rookery I spoke to you about is in what the Adelaide folk call the North-eastern District, i.e., north- east of Adelaide, close to the border line between South Australia and X'ictoria. Similarly my position is in the Western District of X'ictoria. The rookery, which consisted of Straw-necked Ibis and White Ibis, is situate about twenty-eight miles from Casterton (X'ictoria), and is placed in the middle of a large swamp of some three or four hundred acres on Kaladboro Station, covered with rushes, short on the edges of the swamp, but about twelve feet high in the central portions. The rushes are hollow and thick as a hnger. I \'isited the spot accompanied by Mr. W. McLennan, of Casterton, who discovered the rook-ery in the last week in November, 1906. The nesting area was in the centre of the swamp, and was completely hidden from view from the edge, and save for an odd bird or so one would not be aware of its existence. On wading out to the nesting area we found the rushes carefully broken down and the ends tucked in and interlaced in such a way as to form quite substantial platforms, strong enough for one to sit on for a rest. Here were nests in countless hundreds, from those being made to those containing young birds, but in the main holding eggs. It was estimated by a competent authority — an engineer and surveyor — tliat the nesting area covered from six to seven acres. The nests are on different levels, and both the Straw-necked and White Ibis were breeding together; the majority, however, were of the former species. The nests were stoutly built of dried reeds or rushes, and very well lined with dried grass, the whole plant being utilised, with the rootlets attached free CARPHIBiS. 9 of soil, for this purpose, the birds carrying them in the tips of the bills, and in a dangling' manner. The clutches of eggs varied from two to four, but averaged three I should say. A noticeable feature was that the two different species kept in the main separate, that is to say small groups of the White Ibis nested together usually, but not always, and we simply had to note each group as the birds left it, and marked the eggs distinctly as we secured them. The eggs were mostly stained, the freshest being least so. Another noticeable feature was that in certain chosen areas the nests appeared to be more uniformly levelled into platforms, and all young ones that could leave the nests were 'rounded up' into nurseries and remained there, being fed continuously by the parents, while some of the latter appeared to be acting as ' drovers,' and kept the mob together. There were se\-eral hundreds in each nursery. Breeding with the Ibis were two or three pairs of the Royal Spoonbill (Platalea irgiaj, and we took two clutches of three and four eggs respectively. I think this is the farthest south record for the eggs of this Spoonbill. There were no Plalihis fiavipes. The birds were very tame, and only when we purposely fired a shot in the air did they rise en iinnsf, and then the sky was darkened by hundreds of birds, whose wings as they rose cleaved the air with a mighty whistling noise. Then they wheeled and soared in a vast body, but very quietly settled again and with out- stretched neck and dangling legs alighted on the nearest spot to their nest, and began to fi:^ht and push and S(]uawk till each found its own nest. I should think both sexes assist in the incubating. The swamp was about three feet deep in the nest area, reeking of the odour of the foulings of the birds, and the water being polluted caused a redness of the skin of our legs from some chemical irritation. We were told that only during the last two or three years had the Ibis bred there, but that a number of years ago they had done so and left it again." Dr. Holden wrote me from Tasmania: — "A specimen oi Gfroiitiiiis sf>iiiicollis was shot at Montagu, Tasmania, in the last week of September, 1S95, by Mr. Fitzpatrick, the Government school master, who sent it to me, and I forwarded it to the Tasmanian Museum, Ilobart." The eggs are usually three in number for a sitting, soiuetimes four, rarely live, oval or elongate-oval in form, dull white, the shell being coarse-grained, minutely pitted, lustreless and having small limy excrescences distributed over the shell, the inner side of the latter being of a dark green tint. The same variations in shape are to be found in the eggs of this species, as in those of the White Ibis, in fact there is nothing in shape, size and colour to distinguish the eggs of these two species from each other ; the eggs of both are frequently much nest-stained. Six eggs measure; — Length (A) 2-6 x 1-7 inches: (B) 2-52 x 175 inches; (C) 2-54 x 17 inches; (0)272 X 1-67 inches; (E) 2-58 x 177 inches; (F) 2-48 x 172 inches. A set of four taken by Mr. George Savidge, at Lawrence, on the Clarence River, New South Wales, on the 24th September, 1901, measures : — Length (A) 2-58 x 172 inches; (B) 2-67 x 1-67 inches; (C) 2'59 X 1-69 inches; (D) 2'58 x 172 inches. In Eastern Australia, as with the preceding species, with which it frequently breeds in the same swamp or portion of flooded country, September and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season. If favourable conditions do not present themselves during this period, the breeding season may commence after the first autumnal rains, or even as late as the depth of winter. 10 iiiii>iD.f;. Plegadis falcinellus. GLOiSSV IBIS. Taiihiliia J(ih-iii''lln.'i, Liiiii., Syst. N;it., Vol. I., p. 241 (17GG). Fdh-inillnt: iijufiHS, (ioulil, LJds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 47 (1S48); id., Haiidbk. UcLs. Au-str., Vol. II., p. 2SG (1SG.">). yV,V."/i.s-./;f/.'iK''//it,s Sliarpe, Cat. Bils. Ilrit. Mu.s., Vol. XXVI., p. 29 (1898); id., HamM. Bds., Vol. !., p. 187 (189'.t). AnuLT .MALK. — Hi ad, iieck, manf/e, base.^ of sc(i/in!(irs and iiiiirr ivebs of iij)j)fr iring-cocKrls, and a// ihi' nndff Kiirfacc rich ivdilinh-cheglnut, the feathers of tlie head and sides of tlie body glossed irilli briin-:i/'(/rii'u : the reinaindrr of tin' iitinijs and seaptilarii, back, tail and under tail-coverts bronzy- green nnlh purplish reflections; bill olire-broivn ; legs and feet olive-bronui ; iris broii^n. Total length in tliejlesli :.'',J inches, n'ing 11''), tail Jt'75, bill 5, tarsiis o'9. AuuLT FE.M.\LK. — Similar in plninagi' to the male, bnt smaller. Distribuiion. — Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Oueensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South .\ustralia. ^I^MI'; range of the Glossy Ibis extends throughout Southern Europe, the northern portion J- of Africa, Southern Asia to Borneo, Java, Celebes and New Guinea, and in North .America from Florida to the I'^astern United States. In Australia it is found over the greater portion, except in the centre and extreme south-west. Young birds had been obtained in their first plumage, but no record of this species nesting in Australia was recorded until the late I\Ir. K. H. Bennett found it breeding in the Lachlan District, New South Wales, on the 22nd October, i88g. It is by far the rarest of the three species inhabiting Australia, and in New South Wales, unlike either of the preceding species, does not occur near the coast. In January, igio, iMr. Thomas P. .Austin, of Cobborah Station, Cobliora, informed me that he shot a young bird that month, the first he had seen. During a \'isit there in October, igog, I noted small ilocks of Carphibis spinicollii a.nd Ptataha flaiupcs,m a shallow swamp about a mile from the homestead, and in January Mr. Austin informed me that they remained through the ordinary breeding season, and were still there. Of the good services it renders to sugar-cane growers in assisting to lessen the numbers of their greatest insect pest, may be gathered from the following notes received at various times from Mr. J. A. Boyd, while resident at Ripple Creek Sugar Plantation, Herbert River, North- eastern Queensland, Under date 23rd August, i8g5, Mr. Boyd wrote; — " Glossy Ibis are very numerous here, they walk over the ploughed land, among the men and horses, almost like domestic fowls, and as they eat the larvx- and the pupa? of the cane-beetle, they are of course severely protected." Again he wrote on the 6th August, i8g6 : — " Ibis are in hundreds, following the plough and pulling up the larva; of the cane-beetles, but the majority stay in the grass-lands, and are said to feed on ticks that are so fatal to cattle. It is strange that though Herons, Cormorants, Pelicans and other waterfowl are more numerous than usual, Ducks are conspicuous by their absence." Evidently it is at this time of the year that the Glossy Ibis in that district is brought prominently into notice, for writing on the 3rd August, i8g7, Mr. Boyd remarked: — " The cane-beetles are having a bad time, the ploughs being followed by scores of Glossy Ibis, while numbers of Kites hover above. The former are almost as tame as fowls, and just step aside to let the horses pass." PLKIiADIS 11 Writing on tlie 17th March, 1907, from Cunnamulla, South-western Queensland, Mr. S. Robinson remari (1848) ; it^., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., p. 287 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 47 (18'J8); iW., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 188 M899). Platalea melnuor/u/nr/ui., Ni>rth, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2iid Ser.), Vol. X., p. 218 (180.">). Adult male. — Aboiy ami hi'luiv, iitchidiity an elunynli'il cresi 011 tlic croim of the, hi-nd aiid iiapf, pure ivhite ; for/' Iialf of head and Ihe entire breaa/, bare, black; bill black ; legs and fei'l black ; iris reddii/t-broicn. Total length, iu tin- jlesh SO inchi's, iinng LI, tail JfS, bill / , tarsus I^'o. Adult FEMALK. — Similar in phimaye til the male. Distribiitiiiu. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South iVustralia, Aru Islands, Norfolk Island. /'(5N OULD described the present species in 1837 in the "Proceedings of the Zoological V — A. Society " from a specimen obtained in New South Wales. .Although by no means common, it appears to be generally distributed over the Australian continent, except in the centre and extreme south-west, and it has been found breeding in all the States, chiefly in company with the White and Straw-necked Ibis. The late Mr. H. G. Evered of Melbourne found it breeding in Southern New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge on the Clarence River, North-western New South Wales, Dr. E. D'Ombrain and Mr. W. McLellan in South-western Victoria. In each of these instances an isolated nest of the Royal or Black-billed Spoonbill was found among a breeding colony of the White or Straw-necked Ibis. There are eggs in the Australian Museum Collection taken in Northern Queensland, and I have examined eggs from near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South .Australia. As Gould has pointed out, the elongated plumes on the crown of the head and nape are probably assumed only during the breeding season, for most of the specimens in the Australian Museum Collection are destitute of them, as are also young birds, which show traces more or less of a brownish wash on the outer webs of the apical portion of the outer quills, and the bare skin does not reach so far back behind the eye. The food of this species consists of small fish. I'LATALKA. 13 aquatic insects, and inoiluscs. The stoniacli of a specimen presented by Mr. J. 1'. Connally to the Trustees of the Austrahan Museum, and obtained by him at Lake Illawarra, New South Wales, contained only a beach worn vaKe ol a sea-shell. Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me from Melbourne, \'ictoria, as follows : — " In the early sixties the Black-faced Spoonbill frequently visited some shallow swamps between Northcote and Heidelberg, in company with Platihii ftavipfi, but these birds have seldom been seen in \'ictoriaof late years. .\t West Kimberley, Xorth-western .\ustralia, they are fairly common, where they wade amongst the weeds and capture all sorts of aquatic insects. On the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, they breed in large numbers, and their eggs are remarkable for being distinctly marked." From Copmanhurst, New South Wales, Mr. deorge Savidge wrote me : — " The Blacic- faced Spoonbill { I'latalca rc^ia) is very sparingly dispersed over the lower reaches of the Clarence River, showing a decided preference for the large swamps found there. It generally associates and flies about with the White Ibis, but may easily be distinguished from that bird. A friend of mine found several nests ; the birds were breeding in a White Ibis rook'ery, and each nest contained four eggs." For an opportunity of first examining and discovering the eggs of this species I am indebted to Mr. James Kershaw, Curator of the National Museum, Melbourne, who kindly forwarded me a set, together with the following notes: — "The eggs of Platalca indanorliyuclia I sent you were obtained by Mr. H. G. Evered, who has supplied me with the following information relative to the taking of them : — ' While duck shooting on Christmas Day, 1893, on one of the swamps along the banks of the Murray River, about sixty miles above Echuca, and when Hearing an Ibis rookery, the man who was poling the boat drew my attentian to a bird llying with the White Ibis (Thrakiovnis stiictipennis) which we had disturbed, at the same time informing me that the bird was almost a stranger in those parts, and that he had not seen one for the previous four or five years. As it would not leave the spot, but continued flying in a circle, we thought there might possibly be a nest near at hand, so we concealed our boat in a bed of reeds and watched. After a little while all the Ibis, and lastly the bird which I now recognised to be a Spoonbill, settled in an adjacent bed of reeds. We then approached as noiselessly as possible, and when within about forty yards it again rose with the Ibis, and I was successful in shooting it. Upon examining the place we found the nest of the Spoonbill amongst those of the White Ibis; it was an open flat structure, composed of broken down reeds and twigs, measuring two feet across, and was placed almost three feet above the water. The eggs, three in number, were in an advanced state of incubation. All the nests of the White Ibis contained young birds from one to two weeks old." The eggs are usually three, sometimes four, in number for a sitting, varying from oval to elongate-oval in form, some specimens being slightly pointed at the smaller end, the shell being coarse-grained, minutely pitted and lustreless. They are of a dull chalky-white ground colour, which is more or less covered wuh small irregular-shaped spots, blotches and smears of pale yellowish-brown or reddish-brown ; in some specimens the markings are penumbral, and are larger, predominating on the thicker end, where they assume the form of a broken zone. The colours of the markings vary from yellow to brown and red, and frequently over-lie one another. The set taken by the late Mr. H. G. Evered measures ;— Length (.\) 273 x 173 inches; (B) 2-65 X 1-68 inches; (C) 2-6 x 17 inches. Two eggs in the .\ustralian Museum Collection, taken from different nests in Northern (Queensland, measure: — Length (A) 2-5 x 1-64 inches; (B)2-43 X 172 inches. The latter specimen is represented on Plate B. XVII., figure 9. A set of three taken on the loth March, 1902, on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, measures :~Length (,\) 2-63 x 175 inches; (8)273 ^ 173 inches; (C) 27 x 172 inches. 14 PLATALEID*. It is reniaiicahle tiie partiality Spoonbills have for lireeding in company with Ibis ; Mr. Hume in bis " Xests and Egf,'S of Indian Birds," records Platalca Icucovodia breeding on trees in company with the Pelican Ibis (Tantalus Iciicoccpluilns ), also near colonies of the Shell Ibis (A nasti'iiius pscitaus). Platibis flavipes. YELLOW-LEilGEU SPOONBILL. Plataha Jinvippii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 10/;t)_i'.T with Herodias and Gai':cltii. . . . The serrations on the mandible are so fine, the male ornaments not practical as generic characters, the bills so variously shaped, that I cannot see the use of these many genera of Ardeid.€." In New South Wales heronies of this species have been found by Mr. S. Robinson on Buckiinguy Station, New South Wales, where it was breeding freely in November, 1893. Near Mathoura, in Riverina, Southern New South Wales, it has also been found in large numbers in company with the Great White Egret, in flooded country adjacent to the waters of the Murray River. LTnless in the breeding season, it is usually met with singly or in pairs, this species being more common outside the marshes on the Macquarie River. I have known it to be 20 AKIlKID.S. obtained in the neii,'hbourhood of Sydney only on one occasion, the late Mr. Henry Newcombe shooting one of these birds on the 26th Marcli, 1902, at Long Bay, which he presented to the Trustees. It was in the autumn and winter plumage, being pure white, but devoid of the lengthened hair-Hke plumes on the back and lower portion of the fore-neck. This specimen had the bill yellow, brownish on the apical half, and its stomach contained the remains of small fish. Through Mr. Charles French, Junior, Assistant Government Entomologist of N'ictoria, I received a set of eggs for examination, and also the accompanying notes from Mr. J. A. Ross, under date 22nd July, igoy, relative to the taking of them; — -"On the gth November, 1906, Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley and I set out with a guide down the Edwards River, near Mathoura, New South Wales, in a small flat-bottomed boat, which was loaded to its utmost carrying capacity. After a long weary journey we pitched our tent on a small mound of earth, which so far as our investigations went was the only ground showing above water for miles. We set out to e.xplore the vast swamps, which apparently extend for miles on both sides of the Edmunds River at this time of the year. During the afternoon we were fortunate enough to come across a place where a good many Plumed Egrets (MesopJwyx pliunifi-mj were nesting, and with the aid of nearly seventy feet of rope ladder we were able to get into the trees and reach the nests themselves. We secured a few clutches of eggs, and some photographs were with great difficulty taken. In the neighbourhood many Night Herons f'iV)'("/:V(>n?.v fiT/ci/cH/('//s^, a few White Egrets (Hcrodias tijiwiicitsisj and several White-necked Herons (Notapheyx paii/ica J were nesting, and we secured a few eggs of the Night Heron. All the nests of the White Egrets and the White- necked Herons were absolutely beyond reach, and so were most of those of the two other species named. The nest of the I'lumed Egret closely resembles in construction that of the Night Heron and White-fronted Heron, but is somewhat smaller and shallower than either of them. The nests we were able to reach contained from two to four eggs, and I think three or four is the clutch, for we found signs of incubation in sets of both those numbers, but the sets of two were all fresh, and some nests contained young birds. None of the nests were less than seventy feet from the water, and I am of opinion that many nests were placed upwards of two hundred and fity feet high. I do not think that in this locality there were more than six pairs of White- necked Herons, but there were about twice that number of pairs of White Egrets, and about fifty or sixty pairs of Plumed Egrets. The Night Herons were very numerous, and we did not explore the whole of the area occupied by thetii. It took us practically the whole of the third day ('the nth November) to make our way back against the current and through numerous snags to civilization." Although Gould had described this species so far back as 1847, and Mr. S. Robinson had taken a dozen or more nests and sets of its eggs in 1893, •' ^^'^^ not until the September meeting in 1907, of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, that the eggs of the Plumed Egret were exhibited and made known, the description of them first appearing in the "Abstract of Proceed- ings " published on the 27th September, 1907. Mr. S. Robinson informed me he found a dozen or more pairs of the Plumed Egret breeding on Buckiinguy Station, New South Wales, on the 8th November, 1S93. The nests were nearly fiat, and scantily formed structures of thin sticks and twigs, in some instances with leaves attached, and were so small that they were almost covered by the birds when sitting. They were built in Gum or " Humerbung " (Acm-ia, sp.^l saplings, standing in water where the Macquarie River had overflowed its banks, and varied in height from seven to twenty feet from the surface of the water, most of them being higher than twelve feet, and in some saplings were two nests. Each nest contained four eggs, some fresh, others well advanced in incubation. The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, almost true ellipses in form, the shell being close-grained, with fine pittings, others smooth and lustreless. They are of a uniform HKEiODIAS. 21 pale sea-green colour, with here and there scattered over the shell almost invisible white limy incrustations. A set of four taken by Mr. S. Robinson on Buckiinguy Station, on the 8th November, 1893, measure as follows: — Length (A) 1-82 x 1-32 inches; (B) i-8i X 1-2 inches; (C) 1-82 x 1-23 inches; (0)1-83 x i'-9 inches. A set of four eggs in Mr. Thos. P. Austin's collection, taken on the gth November, igo6, near Mathoura, New South Wales, in the vicinity of the southern boundary of the State, measure : — Length (A) 1-87 x 1-35 inches; (B) 1-87 x 1-37 inches; (C) i-8i x [-34 inches; (D) 1-84 x 1-35 inches. In New South Wales October and the three following months constitute the breeding season of the Plumed Egret. Herodias timoriensis. LARGE EGRET. Ardea timoriensis, Cuv., Mus. Paris. — Less., Traite d'Orn., p. 57.t (1831). Hi'rodias syrmalophorns, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI,, pi. r)r)(lS48). Hprndins alba ( nee Linn.), Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 301 (180.5). Herodias fimorirnsis, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus,, Vol. XXVI,, p. 98 (18'J8) ; id., Hand 1. Bds, Vol. I., p. 19.5 (1S99). Adult malk, in breeding plumage. — The entire plumage while, inclnding n number of eloni/ated louse ivebbed hair-like plumei reaching from the centre of the back to sliyhlli/ beijond lite end of the tail ; bill deep yelloiv, broirnisli at tlie tip : skin at the base of the upper mandible and around the. eye greenish-yellow ; legs and feet blnck, the tibia and tarsal joints tiniied with, yellow; iris yellow. Total lengtJi in the flesh ■!■') inches, ?inng Uf'i, tail 5'S, bill Jf:2, tarsns G, some of the longest ornamental plu7nes on the back 13:5. Adult fkmale. — .Similar in jilmnngi- to tlie male, hut slightly smaller. Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .-Vustralia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Central .Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. Tf7\ROBABLY of no bird, inhabiting Australia and Tasmania, has so much diversity of AL opinion e.xisted among authors as to whether it was referrable to the Herodias alba of the old world, or whether it was entitled to full and distinct specific recognition, as in the present instance. Gould, who originally figured it in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia " under the name of Herodias svrmatitplioi'its, refers it back to Herodias alba in his " Handbook of the Birds of Australia." The late Dr. R. B. Sharpe, in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"'' describes it under Lesson's older specific name of Herodias timoriensis, remarking of it — ■" Similar to H. alba, but with the bill yellow in summer and winter; the train of dorsal plumes not very long, and scarcely reaching beyond the tail." Writing of Iderodias timoriensis later on in the same volume,! Dr. Sharpe remarks: — " It seems probable that, after all, this species will have to be united to H. alba, as Dr. Steyneger and Taczanowski both give the bill as black." In the Seebohm collection there is also a black-billed specmien from Canton. European writers agree in describing the lull of //. alba as black in summer, yellow in winter. If the large White Heron or Egret of Australia has the bill entirely black at any season of the year, this order is decidedly reversed. On the other hand I have examined freshly shot specimens in the breeding season, and have never seen one with the "entire bill beautiful orange," as described and figured by * Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. gS (iSgS). t Loc. cit., p. 270 (iSgS). 22 ARDEID^, Gould in his " Birds of Australia." Certainly the base of the bill might be described as orange, or rich yellow, but in all the specimens under notice the bill had the tip brown, and in some examples it extended along the apical portion of it for some distance, and these were fully adult specimens in breeding plumage, with the long train of white plumes, not young birds. The wing measurement of Australian examples in the Australian Museum Collection, however, are distinctly smaller than those given by Dr. Sharpe of Hcrodias alha, the wing measurement of adult males of //. timoricnsis varying from ly^ to I4'6 inches, and of adult females from 13 to lyq inches. The present species may easily be distinguished from Maoplioyx pliniiift-nis and Garzdta nif^iipcs, by its much larger size, and in the breeding season from the former, with which it is frecjuently associated, by the abscence of the long filamentous plumes on the foreneck,and from the latter by being destitute of the two elongated plumes on the nape, and of the lengthened attenuate feathers on the lower portion of the foreneck. As in the preceding species (Mcsot>lwyx plnwifii'us) the long train of dorsal plumes is only assumed in the breeding season, and is lost during the winter months. The Large Egret or White Heron is generally distributed in favourable situations over the greater portion of the Australian Continent, and it is likewise found in Tasmania. It has been recorded by writers from all of the Australian States; sometimes it is met with singly, or in pairs, but in the nesting season they associate together and breed in large heronries. In New South Wales the Macquarie Marshes, and Hooded areas in this locality and Kiverina, in the neighbourhood of the Murray Riser, are well known breeding resorts, and Mr. II. K. Elvery refers to another on an island in Tuckiana Swamp, on the Richmond River, in the North Coast District. Although these birds breed in great numbers in some seasons, many years may elapse before they breed at the same places again, and when they do it is very frequently in company with M csoplioyx plwiiiferns. Like that species its train of dorsal plumes, known to the plumassiers as " ospreys," is in great request for the personal adornment of the fair sex, consequently a great number are slaughtered during the breeding season. Harried, too, by the indiscriminate Oologist, who is just as anxious to rob them of as many sets of their eggs as can be obtained, the lot of the Large Egret and its congeners during the breeding season cannot be described as a happy one. Oologists should be the last to cast a stone at the opposite sex for wearing plumes, for they are equally if not more culpable, for if many of them had their way there would soon be no birds left to rob of their plumes. The pity of it is, that though this is done, they seek to conceal their own faults by loudly denouncing the plume-gatherers and the subse(]uent innocent wearers of them. All species of Egrets in New South Wales are wisely included in the schedules of the " Bird Protection Act," and the destruction of these birds, or taking of their eggs, can only be done at the risk of incurring a heavy penalty for each offence. It chiefly fre(]uents the margins of rivers, billabong^, creeks, reed-beds and lagoons ; also the estuaries of rivers in the coastal districts. The purity of its immaculate white plumage renders it an even more conspicuous object than if it was adorned in the most brilliant colours. Probably this makes the bird so shy, wary and difficult of approach at any other time except the breeding season. Nearly all the specimens presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum, were accompanied by notes stating that it was the only bird of the species seen, and was difficult to get at within shooting range. On the other hand I have seen one of these birds at Liverpool, on the muddy margin of a small pool, so intent on the capture of its prey as to remain motionless while a train passed at full speed not fifty yards away. Solitary individuals, or pairs, frequently remain for a long time in a neighbourhood if undisturbed. The stomachs of specimens examined contained more or less perfect fish fry, frogs, aquatic insects and small crustaceans. xoxm'iioyx. ^■j Mr. Henry K. Elvery wrote me as follows from Alstonville, Richmond River, New South Wales: — "On the 8th November, 1899, I paid a visit to Stony Island, Tuckiana Swamp, Kichmond Riser, and fuund the White E),'ret (Hcivdias allni) breeding; in company with I'hahi- civcoi-a.x indanoU-HCHS. The trees on the island were covered with a tliick viny growth, and many of the nests were placed on the top of these vines, and could not be seen from the ground. By climbing up the higher trees overlooking this thick growth, I could locate the position of the nests. Four eggs was the full clutch. I made a second visit to the island on 29th November following, and, as I expected, found that the birds had laid again." Mr. Robert Grant, Taxidermist of the Australian Museum, lias handed me the tollowing note: — " I have procured on several occasions, in the interior of New South Wales, the Large White Heron (Hci'odiiu alba), although usually a shy and retiring species. In No\ember, 1883, when collecting at Collyburl Station, near Narromine, I was seated on a bank of the Maccjuarie River, attending to some birds I had shot, when I noticed a large White Heron circling around in the air, and fortunately for me it came down towards a small sandy spit in the bed of the river, just within range, so 1 shot it before it had time to settle. It proved to be an adult male in full breeding plumage, and the long train of plumes was perfect, the bill being pale yellow inclining to orange at the base. In the winter months all the birds I shot were without the dorsal plumes, and had the bills black." Mr. E. U. Atkinson, while resident at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, forwarded me the eggs of this species for description, together with the following note: — " Mr. John Wright found a small colony of licvodiai alba breeding in a species of Eucalyptus over- hanging a river on the east coast of Tasmania, during 1883. The three eggs I send you were taken from a nest containing four, one egg of which was unfortunately broken in transit." The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting. The specimens referred to above vary considerably in shape ; one specimen (.A) is an elongated oval tapering slightly towards the smaller end ; (B) is nearly a true oval in form, and (C) a smaller oval ; they are of a pale sea- green colour, one specimen having a slight limy covering on one side, giving the egg a blanched appearance. The surface of the shell is smooth and lustreless, but has more or less minute indistinct shallow pittings, and measures : — Length (.A) 2-13 x 1-43 inches; (B) 2-02 x 1-43 inches; (C) 1-95 x 1-48 inches. A set of four taken by Mr. S. Robinson on Buckiinguy Station, near Warren, New South Wales, measures:— Length (A) 2 x 1-45 inches; (B) 1-97 x 1-42 inches; (C) 2 x 1-38 inches; (D)2-ii x 1-38 inches. The latter specimen is represented on Plate B. X\TII., fig. 4. October and the three following months is the usual breeding season in Eastern Australia. Notophoyx novae-hollandiae. WHITE-FRONTED HEEON. Ardrn nonr-holUndice, Lath., Ind. Orn., Vol. II., p. 701 (1790); Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. .53 (ISIS); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p 299 (186.5). Nolophoyx novr.-hol'andice, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 109 (1898) ; id., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. L, p. 196 (1899). Adult .m.\le. — General colour above slatij-ijrey, with a broivaish joash on the back from the latter and the scapulars extend long lanceolate ornamental plumes, reaching nearly to the end of the 24 ARDEID/E. tall : rinap ami dipper /ail-coverta liijltf sl(i/i/-iirfi/ : upprr iviny-coverls and innermost secondaries I ike the back; remaindfr of the (juills and the tail-feathers black, shaded fvith grey; liead and neck dark slate colour, the crown and elongated feathers on the nape blackish. ; forehead, entire sides of face, throat and centre of the dipper portion of the fore-neck x'hile, passing into citinamoii-broicn on the elongated feathers on the lower portion of the foreneck, remainder of the under surface and under tail-coverts dull grey n:ashed with pale reddish-buff, ivhich is more distinct on the lengthened feathers on the sides of tlie upper-breast ; bill dark blackish-brown, the basal half of the hirer mandible flesh colour; skin at base of upper inandible and behind the eye greyish-hUick : legs and feel pale oUee- yellow ; front of lotver portion of tarsi and front of toes dark hron-n ; iris yello/v. Total length, in the flesh 25 inches, icing I..', tail 5'3, bill 3'5, tarsus .i'S. Adui.t fkmai.e. — Similar in plumage to the mide. Distrihidiou. — Xorth-vvestern Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, X'ictoria, South Australia, Central /Vustralia, Western Australia, Tasmania. /T^IIE well known White-fronted Heron, or " Blue Crane " as it is more often called in the -L country districts, is generally distributed in favourable situations over the greater portion of the Australian continent, and is likewise found in Tasmania. It is one of the earliest described species of Australian birds, Phillip figuring it in his " Voyage to Botany Bay," in 1789, from a specimen obtained in Port Jackson, Latham subse(iuently characterising it in his " Index Ornithologicus" in the following year, under the name of Ardca iinva-hollnnditr. It frequents the timbered margins of rivers and creeks, mangrove flats and estuarine areas, lagoons, backwaters and dams, giving preference to those waters that are overhung with trees of a large growth. Go where you will, in these situations in almost any part of Australia, one is almost sure to observe this species. Generally it is met with in pairs, or in small tloclcs, probably a pair of adults accompanied by their young. At one time it may be seen feeding in the shallow water, at another the first indication of its presence is its slowly rising in the air, with laboured lli^ht, as it is disturbed from the weedy recess of a reed-bed or rush-bordered stream, which previously had hidden it from view. Again it may be seen feeding on the grassy sward, but this more often when it is searching for food for a brood of young, and as frequently perched on the topmost branch of some dead tree, near the waterside. On Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, in company with Mr. Thos. P. Austin, in October, 1910, these birds were now and again flushed from the trees that fringe the banks of the Talbragar River, as we drove along ; they were also seen feeding in the long grass and rushes of a swampy depression about a mile from the homestead, and at a dam near the woolshed. A nest Mr. Austin climlied toon the idth October, in a tree overhanging the Talbragar River, which a week before had contained a single fresh egg, was found to be empty and the bird not to be seen. In Victoria I first met with this species in my early collecting days frequenting a brackish swamp, which then existed on the bay side, between Albert Park and St. Kilda, separated only from the waters of Hobson Bay by waste lands and sand dunes, now Middle Park. On one occasion there, while forming one of a shooting party of boys, I witnessed an incident which impressed on my memory for ever afterwards the need of care in dealing with wounded birds of this and allied species. A boy having fired at a " Blue Crane," it fell wounded into the shallow water, and he immediately waded in and caught the bird by the legs, grasping a tarse in one hand as he returned to the land; on reaching there we hurried up to him to see it. To get a better \-iew he placed his hand under the body of the bird, when it immediately turned up and dealt him a blow with its long pointed bill, inflicting a severe wound on the side of his face, not two inches from his left eye, which bled freely ; had it been a little closer it would certainly have resulted in the loss of one eye. At that time it was the height of a bird-nesting boy's ambition to obtain the eggs of the " Blue Crane," and this I subsequently did many years after from a nest in a tree overhanging the Yarra River, near Heidelberg. NOTOPHOYX. 25 The food of this species is varied. Small fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans generally form the bulk of it; it also eats locusts, crickets and land molluscs, and is credited to be useful in destroying,', among others, the intermediate host of fluke. Stomachs of specimens examined contained also the remains of small frogs and lizards. Of course the nature of its food varies with the situations it fre.]uents. In November, i8q6, I saw this species feeding on the race- course at Narrabri, probably on locusts; later on the birds were observed feeding among the water-weeds near the banks of the Namoi and Gwydir Rivers. The stomach of one examined in August of the same year, shot at Gosford, New South Wales, contained several crabs, a number of nipper prawns, some young pipe lish and a little sand. As pointed out by Gould, considerable variation exists in the extent of white on the face and throat, this character being more pronounced in some specimens than others. It may be also added that the crest feathers on the crown of the head and nape are black in adult specimens and dark slate colour on the immature bird, which also has the upper wing-coverts washed with brown and the feathers on the lower portion of the abdomen and the under tail-coverts dull buffy-white. In only one adult male in the Australian Museum Collection do the largest elongated lanceolate plumes extend to the end of the tail-feathers. This specimen, which was obtained by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, on the Lachlan River, New South Wales, in June, 18S3, is furthermore distinguished by having the fourth primary of one wing, including its shaft, pure white. Mr. H. G. Barnard wrote as follows from Bnnbi, [luaringa, Queensland :—" The White- fronted Heron (Notophoyx novce-liollaudi.r ) builds a flat stick nest on the horizontal limb of a Swamp Gum, .sometimes over water, at others a considerable distance from it, for I have found their nests fully half a mile from any water. The nest is very frail, and the eggs can be plainly seen from the ground. Both sexes take turn about at the sitting, the number of eggs varying from four to six. It breeds at any time from September to .\pril." From Copmanhurst, Clarence River, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge wrote: — " The White-fronted Heron (Notophoyx inw.r-linllanJi.r ) may be found in all parts of the Clarence River District. I have seen it in the bay and on mud Hats at Yamba, and on the sides of lagoons and swamps higher up the river, also on the borders of the thick bush lands on the upper reaches of the Clarence. The nest is a platform composed of coarse sticks, and lined with thinner sticks and twigs, and is usually placed on some horizontal branch of a tree near water. I have also found nests in the bush lands, a good distance from any water, and upon two occasions in large Eucalyptus trees, which also contained nests of the Black-shouldered Kite. The same building site is resorted to, and the nest built np again if not molested ; the nest and limbs surrounding it are fouled by excreta, and present a white limy appearance from below. The eggs are usually four for a sitting, and are of a beautiful pale bluish-green colour. Its flight is heavy and laboured, and when disturbed suddenly it utters a loud croaking note. It wades knee deep in the water when searching for food, which consists of small fish and different species of aquatic insects. I was much amused and astonished to see how artful they can be, by watching one close to a punt that crosses the Clarence River, below Grafton. This bird was systematically stirring up the mud and weeds with its feet, and picking up the small particles of food disturbed by its action. Tlie young birds are covered with long grey down, and are weird looking creatures." I'nder date of i8th November, 1909, Mr. Thos. P. .'\ustin forwards me the following notes from Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales :— " The White-fronted Heron (Notophoyx noi'cf-holliiiidkT) is the commonest of all the family in this district, and remains here throughout the year, but it is unfortunately never numerous enough to be of much benefit when the plagues of grasshoppers are taking everything before them. When these pests are about the White- •JO AKlli;iI>;E, fronted Herons use them as the principal food for their yount,'. In lyuO I chnibed to a nest in which there were four half-fledged young birds ; as soon as 1 looked up into the nest all four of them hacked away from me to the far edge ot the nest, and then all disgorged their last meal, which consisted of nothing but grasshoppers ; this they had no sooner done than they commenced to pick them up again and swallow them. A few pairs of birds breed here in the Red Gum and Apple-trees growing on the banks of the Talbragar River, and 1 have known them when not interfered with to return three successive seasons to the same nest. During the drought of igo8 these birds kicked their eggs out of the nest as soon as the clutch was complete." Writing horn Yandembah Station, in the Lachlan District, New South Wales, m i88y, the late Mr. I\. H. Bennett remarked : — "The White-fronted Heron {Aidt-n iiovir-hollaiidiu-) is the most common species of the family in this district, being found wherever there is water, and giving preference to that surrounded by timber. It usually breeds in September and October, and lays from three to five eggs of a beautiful light blue colour. The nest, which is usually placed in the fork of some horizontal branch overhanging water, is a very rude structure, consisting of sticks placed across the fork, and through the interstices the eggs can be seen from below. Before the young leave the nest the latter becomes very offensive from the quantity of accumulated excrement deposited. This reniaik applies also to all the nests of the .\kueid.+; I have seen as well as that of Platihis flavipa.'' From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. .A. Keartland sent me the following notes: — "The White-fronted Heron (NotopJioyx nova-hollandia ) is found from the coast line to the centre of the continent. I have found the nests of these birds in the stunted Gums on the Werribee Swamps, and in tall trees on Davenport Creek, Central Australia. They are usually silent birds, but one which had its nest near our camp on the Finke River made a tremendous croaking noise whenever any of our party approached its nesting tree. They are very useful birds, and not only destroy large numbers of yabbies, water beetles and fresh-water snails, but also consume crickets and grasshoppers. I had one for a long time as a garden pet, which used to kill numbers of Sparrows. It used to walk slowly about the garden where the Sparrows were feeding, and when within reach of its victim would seize and knock it on the giound a few times, dip it in the water tin and swallow it whole." Mr. Tom Carter, writing me from Albany, Western .\ustralia, in January, 1910, remarks : — " Notoplioyx novce-hoUandicT is by far the commonest Heron in this State, and is to be met with wherever there is water, fresh or salt. I think these birds are more numerous in the south-west than the north-west. They may be seen in flocks feeding in the harbour here." Dr. Lonsdale Holden wrote me from Circular Head, Tasmania ; — " A White-fronted Heron (Ai'dca iiovir-holliindiie) was brought to me on the ist February, 1887. It was caught at the foot of the wharf at Circular Head, unable to fly, and appeared to be cramped. In May, 1888, I observed this species in small flocks frequenting the upland and other grass paddocks of the Circular Head Peninsula, an occurrence I had not noticed before, and new also to other observers here." From Hobart, Tasmania, Mr. Malcolm Harrison sent me the following note: — " Wherever standing water is to be found in Tasmania there will the White-fronted Herons occur in larger or smaller numbers. They occasionally appear to get exceedingly tame, and I have seen one or two take possession of an old waterhole within the boundaries of a suburb of Hobart, and remain there quite undisturbed by passing vehicles or trams. They usually nest not far from their feeding haunts, and if their eggs are taken will continue depositing clutch after clutch in the same nest. Mr. Eric Kermode recorded five consecutive clutches in the Midland District, and Mr. Brent in 1909 took four clutches from the one nest, and the bird is now (first week in January, 1910) well on in the incubation of her fifth set." NOTOPHOYX. ai •' Some years af^o I saw at Jnterlaler wing-corerts and inner- 2!s Aiu>Kii)it;. tnos/, secotuliiriis iikf //(»' hack : flu' oiih'r, /I'sser mid infihan ciji-t'its iitiil tlf <•(/, id I -l-S, tarsus :i. AXWLT (\\i2,\\tioni\)—" Entire phuiiniie n-hUe:fue lani-'ul„te pi mwf: on lower back, sundler onrx i,n n,pper breast, and still stn/tller on the nape : bill hro/vnishalate, darkest oil the culmen and. j>ider towards the tip; legs blackish-slate in front, greenish-yellow behind; knees greenish-yellow \ feet greenish-yellow, soles briglit lemon colour ; iris bright yellon' ; eyelids yellon: : bare skin aronud, the eye bluish slate colour. Totnl length in the /Ush .'!)ro inches, n'ing 11:',, bill from gape ■:,'!>, tnrsns .1" (Holden). /:'/5/n7w/w;/.— North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Oueensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania. /T^HE Reef Heron is found in favourable situations all around the coast line of Australia, -L and also frequents some of the larger islands of Bass Strait and the northern and western coasts and contiguous islands of Tasmania. It has a wide ultra-Australian range, inhabiting most of the islands of the Pacific, the Malay Archipelago, the islands of the eastern and south-eastern coasts of Asia, and coasts and contiguous islands of the Malayan and Indian Peninsulas. Much has been written about the dark and light forms exhibited by this species, dark slate-coloured birds and white birds being frequently seen together, and as will be seen later on by Mr. Thos. P. Austin's notes, found in the same nest. Adult birds of both sexes may, therefore, be of either or both these colours, or even parti-coloured. Formerly they were re"-arded as distinct species, the dark-coloured form being described under the name of Dewicgrdta sacra, and the white form as Dcmici^nita (;rcyi. The measurements given by the late Dr. K. Bowdler Sharpe, in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," are much less than those of average South Australian and Tasmanian examples, which total jo inches in the flesh and 11-5 inches in wmg-measurement. He has, however, pointed out the disparity in size of specimens from different localities, and quotes Mr. Allan Hume's notes on the excessive variation in the colour of the soft parts. Among the large number of specimens Dr. Sharpe there enumerated, is an adult skin received from the Trustees of the Australian Museum, obtained at Port Jackson. This species still frequents the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, and although I have never noted it in Sydney Harbour, a pair used to frequent the clififs between the Gap and the South Head Lighthouse. It may still, however, be met with at intervals along the rocky coast-line beyond Manly, also on the reef below the cliffs at Bulgolo Head, on the ocean side of Newport. I have never, however, at any time observed the white form, all have been dark slate-coloured birds, neither is there a specimen in the Australian Museum Collection ; I have, therefore, transcribed Dr. Lonsdale Holden's description of a white bird he shot on the rocks near Rocky Cape, on the north-west coart of Tasmania. Farther north in New South Wales the Reef Heron becomes more plentiful, and Mr. H. R. Elvery has a set of its eggs taken on the coast near Ballina. It is still more common on the reefs and islets of the Queensland, Northern Australian and North-western .Australian coasts. From the former Stale I have received its eggs, taken by Mr. Frank Hislop on Hope Island, and Mr. Thos. P. .Yustin observed it breeding in numbers on Red-bill Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, in November, igo8. Mr. Thos. P. Austin, of Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South 'Wales, writes me as follows :— " I first saw the Reef Heron (Demiegvetta sacra) on Half Tide Island, ten miles south from Ma:ckay, North Queensland, on November i6th, 1907, but during the next few days I had splendid opportunities of seeing it nesting in great numbers, especially at Red-bill Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, where there must have been between two and three hundred birds, many of which were breeding. Their nests were to be seen on all parts of the island, from just above high water mark up to the highest point (two hundred feet), and in various situations, 32 AKDKID*. some were placed in tlie low scrubby trees, the highest one I noticed was ten feet from the ground ; others were placed on top of Hat rocks beneath the scrub, but the majority were under large rocks. The size and shape of the nests vary very much ; most of them were nothing but a platform of sticks, about fifteen inches in diameter, and only a lew inches in height, but one nest, placed between three very large rocks, stood nearly four feet fiigh; this, I think, must ha\e been in use for many years. The breeding being in full swing, I saw nests in all stages, but in no instance did I notice a nest with a clutch of more than three eggs or young, mostly two. fn one nest I saw two young nearly fully fledged, one being snow white the other of a slaty-black plumage. In one other case I saw an adult bird of each coloured plumage attending to a nest with three young, all of which were of the slaty-black- plumage. Both male and female assist in feeding the young, but this only takes place at low tide ; at high tide the birds are to be seen perched on rocks, just above the water. Their call note is nothing more than a grunt." From Blackwood, South Australia, Mr. Mdwin Ashby writes ; — " I met with Demiegrctta sacra nesting on the north-west coast of Kangaroo Island, South .Australia, at the end of October, 1905. Five eggs were laid in a scantily-built nest on a ledge of rock, separated from the mam land of the island, except at very low tides, and about thirty feet above sea level. The eggs were partly incubated." From Western .Australia Mr. Tom Carter writes me : — " The Reef Heron ( Dciiiiegrctta sacra) was the commonest species about Point Cloates, and the North-west Cape. The blue birds were the more numerous, but the white variety was frequently seen feeding with them, and they interbreed. On the 25th October, 1902, two white immature birds were found in a nest, with apparently white parents, at Frazer Island. (_)n 25th September, 1894, nest with one egg ; shot blue male, white female parent. 6tli September, 1901, nest with three incubated eggs on sandstone cliff, on beach ; white male and blue female parents, both shot. On 1st September, 1 901, found nest with three eggs, apparently white female and blue male bird. 25th August, 1894, nest with three eggs, one blue and one white bird. Two and a half miles from the beach, at Point Cloates, the hull of the A.S.S. " Perth " lay on the reef on its side, and a pair of blue Reef Herons built their nest inside what had been the saloon. It was made entirely of pieces of fencing wire, which having formed part of the cargo, was laid in quantities around the wreck, and being very rusty and thin in places could be easily broken into convenient lengths for building. Numbers of these birds bred in crevices and on ledges of the great cliffs which overhang the salt water at Yardie Creek, North-west Cape. I have a hne specimen of the white variety shot at Albany, in South-western Australia." The following notes were made by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head, on the north-west coast of Tasmania: — "On the ist of June, 1886, I shot a Reef Heron ( Doniegrctta sacra) near Crayfish Creek, Rocky Cape ; the entire plumage was white. So far as my present experience goes, when a white Heron is seen blue ones are present also ; the contrary does not, however, obtain. On the iSth October, 1886, Mr. E. D. Atkinson found a nest on Sister Island, with three fresh eggs. The nest, about fifteen inches in diameter, was made of coarse herbage, with a little fine material in the centre, and was nearly flat. In October of the preceding year he found two nests on the same island containing young birds apparently about a week old. On the 2nd November, 1886, I saw a Blue Reef Heron on Pelican Island, off Woolnorth. During May and June of this year I saw several of these birds on the rocks between Circular Head and Rocky Cape. When it Hies it draws back its head, as it were, lietween its shoulders, so that the neck presents an arched appearance, with the concavity downwards and forwards. On the i6th October, 1887, I found a nest with four eggs on Sister Island, off which the bird flew when I was within a few feet. It was built in the crevice between two of the sharp quartzite ridges of which this island is made up, a well-formed nest of small NYCTICOKAX. 33 Sticks, and a little dry grass and seaweed lining. Both the birds settled on the rocks close by while their nest was being robbed. They were silent, bnt another which I disturbed afterwards gave a few harsh croaks. We found two other empty nests and other Herons, all the birds having the dull slaty-bkie plumage, though from the shore I had seen a white one with my field glass before we had reached the island, which is all rocks but the central parts consisting of a thick growth of grass tussocks. The same day a nest with four eggs was taken by a boatman off an isolated rock close to Rocky Cape Point." Mr. R. N. .\tkinson writes me as follows from Tasmania:^" My father first met with this species on Church Rock, West Coast of Tasmania, on the 13th November, 1885, and added it to our Tasmanian avi-fauna, taking at the time a set of four eggs from the nest of a white bird. On the loth October of the following year he found another nest containing eggs, on a small island on the north-west coast, and on the 2nd October, 1905, we saw a blue and a white bird together on a small island in the Hunter Group, the eggs of which, three in number, were taken for me later in the same month by Mr. J. F. Parker. A set of eggs was taken on an island in the same group by Mr. W. J. T. Armstrong, on the 7th November, igog. In every instance the nests were well concealed amongst the rocks." The eggs are usually two or three, occasionally four, and rarely five in number for a sitting, elliptical or oval in form, of a uniform pale bluish-white colour, the shell being comparatively close-grained and lustreless, some specimens having a few small limy excrescences, and which are so often found on the eggs of many of our waders and sea-birds. A set of four taken by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, on the i6th October, 1887, on Sister Island, off the north-west coast of Tasmania, measures : — Length (A) 1-83 x 1-35 inches; (B) 1-83 x 1-36 inches; (C) 1-89 x 1-36 inches; (D) i-8S x 1-56 inches. A set of three taken by Mr. E. D. Atkinson on the same island, on the 23rd November, 1890, measures : — Length (A) 1-83 x 1-38 inches; (B) 1-82 x 1-37 inches; (C) 1-83 x 1-36 inches. A set of three in the .-Vustralian Museum Collection, taken on the 28th October, 1904, by Mr. A. McCulloch on Masthead Island, about forty miles east of Port Curtis, on the Queensland coast, measures: — Length (A) 178 x 1-38 inches; {6)178 x 1-37 inches; (C) 175 x 1-35 inches. In North-western .\ustralia Mr. Tom Carter found nests with eggs or young in August, September and October. Gilbert, who found at least fifty Reef Heron's nests on one small rock at Port Essington, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, states that the breeding season is in the month of August. On the islets lying off the coast of Eastern Queensland Mr. Frank Hislop procured eggs and young in September, and fresh eggs again in March, while further south Mr. T. P. .Vustin obtained nests with eggs or young in November. On Kangaroo Island, lying close to South Australia, Mr. Edwin Ashby found a nest with five incubated eggs in October, and on islets adjacent to the north-western coast of Tasmania Mr. E. D. Atkinson and Dr. Lonsdale Holden found nests with fresh eggs during October and November. Nycticorax caledonicus. NANKEEN NIGHT-HERON. Ardea ealpdonka, Gmel., Syst. Nat., Tom. I., p. 626 (1788). Xyctvjorax cakdonicns, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 63 (1848) ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 311 (18(35); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 1.58 (1898); id., Handl. Bds., Vol. 1., p. 198(1899). 9 34 ARDi;iD,E Adult MALK. — Gi'u, ral oilnur nhorr, iiicludinij ihf /rings and tail, Hg/it chestnut, dhjlitly ilarker on the scnpular.i and back, "A/r of the iviny n'hite ; liase of tlie forehead and a narrow line of feathers orer the eye white, narron-ly bordered above with pale cinnaman ; sides of head and neck pale cinnamon, slightly darker on the hind- neck ; crown of the head and nape black, from the latter extend the long narro/n nihite plnmes, bling-coverls dark green externally edged tvilh ochreons huff : (jiiilla bhdslt-grey ; lengthened scajndar plumes hluish-greij washed with green, their shafts pale greyish-ivhite ; forehead, crown of the head, lengthened feathers on the nape and a streak below the eye dark glossy-green ; neck and elongated feathers on (he fore-neck rusty olive-brown, the centre of the hind-neck slightly glossed with green; ceiif re of throat and upper portion of the fore-neck white, conspicuously streaked ivith black ; breast, thighs and under tail-coverts pale olive-broivn, bases of most of the feathers washed with grey. Total length in the flesh 17 inches, wing 7-7, tail 2'S, bill o, tarsus 2. 10 38 AKDEUJ* Adult female. — Similar ia plumnye tu ihn luidi; but shi/hth/ smiilli'r. Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Austraha, Oueensiand, New South Wales. /T^HE present species is widely distributed in favourable situations over the coastal and J_ contiguous districts of North-western Australia, Northern Australia and the greater portion of Eastern Australia, its ultra-Australian range extending to New Guinea, the Molucca Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, the Society and Friendly Islands. In the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," the late E^r. R. B. Sharpe unites Bntovoidcs macroi'hyncha, Gould, with the present species, and although the series of these birds in the .\ustralian Museum is not large enough to fully confirm this view, it is sufficient to show that there is a great variation between the adult breeding plumage, which agrees with Gould's B. sta^natilis, and the non-breeding plumage, destitute of the long greenish-grey scapular plumes of his B. iimcnirliyiiiltn. In addition to this there is considerable variation in the colour of the under parts of B. stngiialiUs in the autumn and early winter plumage being more of an ashy-grey slightly tinged with olive or dull ochreous-brown. Semi-adult specimens, too, have the upper wing-coverts more broadly edged with ochreous-buff, and the inner lesser coverts with rufous- bulT; there is only a faint indication of the white line down the centre of the throat, and the blackish streaks are almost obsolete. Wing measurement of semi-adult female 7-5 inches. In North-western Australia Mr. Tom Carter noted it at Point Cloates, and the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower obtained specimens at Derby. In the Northern Territory of South Australia Gould remarks : — " Gilbert found a colony breeding on the small islets in Coral Bay, near the entrance of the harbour of Port Essington. Their nests, about thirty in number, were built both on the mangroves and on the branches of the Yellow-blossomed Hibiscus ; they were very frail structures, consisting of a few small twigs placed across each other on the horizontal branches, and none of them were more than six feet from the ground ; each contained either two young birds or two eggs of a uniform very pale green." In New South Wales, in favourable situations, it is found along nearly the whole of the coast line, but is more abundant on the northern coastal rivers of the State. In November, 1898, in company with Mr. George Savidge and his son, Mr. Clarence Savidge, it was noted frequenting chiefly the thickly foliaged Bottle Brush-tree (Callistcnioit, sp.) on the Upper Clarence River, being Hushed as we pulled our boat close to those trees fringing the river banks. Mr. Clarence Savidge climbed to one of their nests built at the junction of a forked branch of a Bottle Brush-tree, about fifteen feet above the water, which contained two fresh eggs. During our river trip we saw several large Water Lizards (Pliysignatlius Icicuri) lying along the limbs of the trees overhanging the water, or resting on a stump projecting a few feet above its surface. Notwithstanding that Mr. Savidge shot these Lizards whenever opportunity offered, he informed me that a large number of Little Mangrove Bittern's eggs, also those of se\eral species of water fowl, were destroyed every year by these reptiles. Mr. Robert Grant, Taxidermist of the Australian Museum, has also obtained this Bittern further south on the Bellinger River. It still frequents the neighbourhood of Sydney, but in greatly diminished numbers, haunting chiefly the mangroves of the Parramatta and George Rivers. At Dobroyde and Five Dock, in former years, I occasionally flushed it while it was sheltering during the day in some densely foliaged mangrove, localities also where Dr. E. P. Ramsay and Mr. John Ramsay had previously secured its nests and eggs. i\Ir. W. Blacket informed me he had also found it breeding in Casuariiue overhanging water at St. George Basin, near Milton, in the Illawarra District. In response to a retjuest for a specimen for identification, he forwarded one to the Trustees, which has been mounted and placed in the Exhibition Collection. This is the farthest locality south I have known this species to occur, although there is a probability it yet may be found in favourable situations nearer the southern boundary of the State. HUTOHIDES. ;j9 iMr. J. A. Boyd, while resident at Ripple Creek, Herbert River, (Queensland, sent me the following notes: — " Among the mangroves I noticed a BntoiviJcs javciiiini flop like a Kinghsher from a bough into deep water, catch a fish and return to its perch. Although these Bitterns are very common in Fiji, 1 never remember seeing one do this before." Mr. George Savidge wrote me as follows from Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, under date 2jrd December, 1895: — " The Thick-billed Mangrove Biitern (Butoroides macrorhyncha) has not bred here at all this season, and I think the dry weather is the cause. I have only found one nest with four eggs, but last year I obtained them \ery plentifully. Since the late rains they seem to ha\e come back again, for I saw a number yesterday. These birds often sit on a stump just above water, with their heads bent down, and one can see them make darts with their bills into the water. What they pick up I do not know, but it is apparently something that floats by." \\'riting threeyears later Mr. Savidge remarked : — " The Little Mangrove Bittern is dispersed along the main course of the Clarence River, from the 1 leads as far up as Gordon Brook, a distance of over one hundred miles by water. I have seen several pairs along the viaduct and training walls at Yamba, also along the edge of the mangrove swamps there; it is nowhere plentiful, and confines itself to the main channel or large tributaries of the Clarence ; it does not frequent so much the small creeks or swamps as Dupdov •^otddi. The nest is a concave platform of small sticks and twigs, about fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter, and is usually placed in the fork of a hoiizontal branch hanging over water ; on one or two occasions I have found them several hundred yards from water. The eggs are three or four for a sitting, mostly the latter, pale blue, and the smallest of any of the Herodiones I have found. The nests are always placed singly and I have never found it in colonies as described by Gould ; it commences to construct its nest in September, and by the end of that month the eggs are usually laid, the breeding season continuing during October, November and December. It builds quickly, taking about a fortnight to construct its nest, and lay the full complement of eggs. .\i one time it was fairly plentiful about Copmanhurst, but this unfortunate harmless bird, with many others, has been practically wiped out by gunners who frequent the river in search of other wildfowl." The above figure is reproduced from a photograph taken by Mr. Savidge. NEST AND EGGS OF LITTLK MANGROVE BITTERN. 40 AHIlElD*. Mr. Tom Carter, writing me from Western Australia, remarl) ; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 234 (1808) : id., Hand-l. Bils., Vol. I., p. 203 (1899). Adult M-\LK. — Forehcdd, crouui <•( llu' head, uapp, hack, scapulars, innermost si-condaries and tail featli.ers III ossy (ireenish-black ; a /mtch on ih' shoulder and Ihe edije of the ivin;/ rich chestnut; remainder of the -upper imng-coi-erts goldeii-hu.ff\ forming a conspicuous jiatch on the tving ; quills and primary corerts greyish-black ; a line over the eye and sides of Iteail and ueck chestnut, passing into reddishrhesfnut on the hind-neck ; chin, centre of throat ami entire forc-ueck golden-hnff, darker in the centre and passing into dull white on the sides of the chin and throat ; remainder oj the under surface yellon-ish-hn.f, the feathers on the chest largely centred with black, the.-ie markings being rednced to a long, narron; lanceolate broivnish-black stripe on. the centre of tlo fnthrrs on the sides of the breast; under tail-coverts yellounsh-buff : bill pale greenish -yellow, culmen. brownish-black ; legs and feel green, ; iris rich yellow. Total length in the, flesh 11 -5 inches, toing ■r2, tail 2, bill lu, tarsus 1 '7. AHDETTA. 41 Adult fkmale. — Resemhh'rt the mnl'', hut i reryirlipri', mufli paJrr iii colmir, and differs in haviny the foreliea'l, crn'rn af tlie /n'ad, nnp", hack and sca/mliirs fhexlmil nr /■/le.i/initdnrurn insti;nd of fflonsi/ yri'i'iiish-hhick. Disti'ihiitioii. — Northern Territory of South Australia, Oueensland, Mew South Wales, \'ictoria. /T^HE range of the Minute I!ittern extends throughout the greater portion of Eastern J- AustraHa, but is more commonly met with in the coastal districts than in the dry inland portions of the States. It frequents chiefly the reeds, rushes and other aquatic herbage found about swamps, reed-beds, dams and lagoons, also the dense thickets and rank grass-beds fringing the sides of rivers and creeks. It is shy and seclusive in habits, and trusts to crouching down to conceal itself if observed rather than to seek refuge in flight, generally being met with singly, and less frequently in pairs. !t is difficult to flush, so much so that it is often caught by dogs or by hand, but when disturbed it can fly very well, although with slow and laboured flight. Its food consists principally of small fish and aquatic insects. The late Dr. R. B. Sharpe has recorded Northern .Australia and Oueensland as the habitat of the closely allied . J ri/tV/'j s/;;(';/s/5, inhabiting chiefly the Japanese Islands and China to the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, and the Burmese and Malayan countries through the Malayan Archipelago to New Guinea. An adult male, obtained by Messrs. Christie and Godfrey, by striking the window of Point Charles Lighthouse, during a storm, which lies off Port Darwin, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, is an undoubted Arddta piisilla, and is similar to specimens obtained in the neighbourhood of Sydney. It is remarkable that with the growth of population around the latter city, more specimens are obtained in its vicinity and presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum, than from all other parts of New South Wales. The swamps in the vicmity of Kandwick and the old water reserve at Botany, are its favourite haunts near the metropolis, many specimens being presented at various times by the late Mr. Henry Newcombe, most of which he informed me were captured by his water-spaniel while he was out shooting. From the same localities specimens have been presented on various occasions by Dr. C. A. Edwards, Mr. E. Summerhayes Jeboult, and Mr. H. Burns. The late Captain J. Bremer, R.N., also obtained this species at Rose Bay. Mr. Robt. Grant informs me that on returning one evening from shooting at Dobroyde, he flushed one near the tram line. There was fine cover for these birds in the reed-covered portion of the lower end of Dobroyde Nursery, which abutted on the side of the creek. That it is not entirely confined to the coastal districts of the State is proved by the receipt of an adult male from Mr. Frank Mack, that was shot in January, 1895, ^' Narromine, a pastoral and agricultural district, situated on the banks of the Macquarie River, and about three hundred and ten miles west of Sydney. There is the usual amount of individual variation found among adult birds of this species, some being more richly coloured than others, especially on the buff or golden-buff wing patch and on the under parts, the preceding description of the adult male being taken from a highly- coloured specimen obtained by Mr. George Savidge at Copmanhurst, in November, 1898, and that of the female from a specimen procured by Mr. J. M. Cantle at Cook River, near Sydney, in January, 1895. Writing from Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, on the 23rd December, 1895, Mr. George Savidge remark's: — "I have seen several examples of Arddta pusilla about here lately, but after repeated searches for their nests, without success, I shot two of them, and on dissection both of them proved to be males. The Minute Bittern is an exceedingly rare species in the Clarence River District, but I have seen odd ones about South Grafton, where the school boys ran down and caught several, perhaps young birds. A small colony of eight or nine birds appeared one season in a thick reedy swamp, close to Copmanhurst, 11 42 AHltVAUX,. where I believe they had started to construct their nests. They were very tame, and were hard to flush, their deep rich chestnut bacii showing very conspicuously when flying. They did not remain long, as I heard after several were shot." L'nder date Sth May, if)05, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me from Northcote, \'ictoria, as follows: — "I was asked on the 5th Alarch to go and see a strange bird a man had caught at I'rouin, in Gippsland. It proved to be a Little Bittern (Avdctta piisiHa), which they had kept alive, by feeding it on raw meat, for about two months. As they did not care for it they gave it to me, and since it has been here it has grown (]uite tame, and will take small pieces of meat from my hand. It has so many strange ways ; sometimes it will straighten itself up like a stick, at other times it will crouch and puff its feathers out, until it resembles a ball ; it has, too, many of the characteristics of the Nankeen Night Heron." The late Mr. H. G. Evered found this species breeding near Mathoura, in Southern New South Wales, and Mr. James Kershaw, Curator of the National Museum, Melbourne, to whom I am indebted for the loan of the eggs, sent me the following note relative to the taking of them : — " Mr. II. G. Evered found the nest of the Minute Bittern, containing four fresh eggs, in a swamp near Mathoura, New South Wales, during November, 1893. It was an open nest, composed of dead leaves of aquatic plants, grass and herbage growing about the swamp, and was fastened to several reeds just above the surface of the water. The bird was seen on the nest, and one was captured ali\'e." The eggs of the Minute Bittern are oval in form and pure white, the shell being close- grained, smooth and lustreless. Like the eggs of all birds laid in similar situations, they soon become dirty and nest stained. They measure : — Length (A) 1-13 x 0-98 inches ; (B) 1-26 x I inches. OemjLS IDXTP^ETOIS, Jhine and liekheitJiach. Dupetor gouldi. YELLOW-NECKED MANGROVE BITTERN. Ardettafacicollis (nee Lath ), Gould, Bda. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 6.5 (I84S). ButoroidesflavicoUis (nee Lath.^, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 3I.5 (186.5). Dupetor gouldi, Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 249 (1898); id., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 20.3 (1899). Adult male. — General colour above rich dark broivii, the back and scapulars faintly icashed with bronzy-ijreen ; upper wing-coverts dark brown, narrowly margined with rufous around the tip ; quills bluish-slate colour ; forehead, crown of the head, cheeks, ear-coverts and hind-neck blackish- brown, ivith a faiiit purplish gloss ; chin, sides of throat and neck golden-straw colour : featliers on the centre of tli.e throat straw ciilonr, irregidarly tipped ivith black, giving tliese parts a mottled appearance ; fore-neck and chest dark broivn, willi a blackish streak down the centre, and broadly niaryined ivith straw colour, irliich is tnore often con/ined to one web only ; remainder of the under surface ({ark broivn ; bill dark horn colour, utider side of lower mandible yelloivish ; leys and feet olive-broivn ; iris yellow. Total length in the jlesh 37 'o inches, wing 8'8, tail o'3,bill S'3, tarsus 2-75. Adult ¥K's\ \hv..^SimUar in, plninngr. to the male, bat of a paler broirn, the blackish markings on the centre of the throat and fore-neck less distinct, and intermingled toitli spots of rufous-bv,(f. Distribution. — Western Australia, North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales. DUPETOK. \.i OF the two species of Manf^rove Bittern inhabiting AustraHa, the Yellow-necked is the slightly larger of the two, and its range also on the continent is more extended. Mr. George Masters, while collecting on behalf of the 'i'rustees, obtained specimens at King George Sound, Western Australia, and at Wide Bay, Queensland, on the opposite side of the continent. The late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower procured examples at Derby, North-western Australia, and Gould also received specimens from Port Essington, in the Northern Territory of South Australia. Dr. E. P. Ramsay has recorded it from various parts of the coastal districts of Eastern Queensland, and has described its eggs from Duaringa, on the Dawson River, from examples forwarded to him, with a skin of the parent bird, by the late Mr. George Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo. In New South Wales it occurs throughout all the coastal districts of the State, but is much more abundantly distributed throughout the swamps and mangrove flats of the northern rivers than elsewhere, and where it has been found breeding on many occasions by Mr. 1 1. R. El very and Mr. George Savidge. Mr. R. Grant, collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, obtained specimens on the Bellinger River, and Dr. C. .\. Edwards presented a specimen in June, 1905, which he had procured at Wyong, Near Sydney it is much rarer than tlie Little Mangrove Bittern, although examples are occasionally obtained; the late Mr. H. Newcombe presented specimens he had procured at Randwick, and I also saw a set of its eggs taken from a nest in a tree overhanging George River, near Liverpool, in September, 1897. It occurs somewhat sparingly throughout the Illawarra District, to the southern borders of the State. Mangrove flats, the timbered margins of rivers and creeks, and tree-lined lakes, swamps, and pools are its favourite haunts, situations that are favourable for it to procure small fish and insects, on which it subsists, the food varying according to the situations it frequents. Stomachs of specimens procured in the Lachlan Swamp, Botany, contained the remains of small fish ; of another obtained at Wyong the remains only of a(]uatic insects, and the stomach was thickly enveloped in fat. From Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, Mr. H. G. Barnard sent me the following notes: — " Many years ago I found a nest of the Yellow-necked Mangrove Bittern (Diipctov goiildi) in a Swamp Gum ; the nest, a small Hat structure, was built on a horizontal limb that projected over a waterhole, the height from the water being about fifty feet. As there was a large hornet's nest on the underside of the limb, and between the nest and the main stem, I got up at daylight one morning and climbed the tree while the hornets were quiet ; as the eggs were some distance beyond the reach of my hand, I took them with the aid of a table spoon tied t<_) the end of along stick, one egg at a time was spooned from the nest and drawn in ; the eggs, five in number, being thus secured, I descended the tree without disturbing the hornets, who, when warmed with the sun, would have made it impossible to have taken the eggs. Another nest containing five eggs was taken the following season from a tree overhanging a water hole about two miles from where the first nest was obtained, probably of the same pair of birds. The eggs were white. Of late years these Bitterns have completely left this district." Mr. Henry R. Elvery sends me the following notes from Alstonville, Richmond River, New South Wales : — " I have had frequent opportunities of observing Butovoidcs flavicoUis in the big scrub district of the Richmond River, and have found a number of nests. The nesting site is invariably in the vicinity of water, the nests and eggs being usually placed on a horizontal limb overhanging a running stream. The number of eggs most frequently contained in a clutch is three, although I have frequently taken four eggs from a nest of this species. On the 7th December, 1S98, took a set of live eggs from a nest, and on a later date took a second set of five from the same locality, which I feel convinced were laid by the same bird. An interesting circumstance connected with this species is worth relating. Early in the season 1907 a nest was built in an Acacia growing on the bank of a creek, by Tawny-shouldered Podargus (P. strigoides) ; later on took a set of two eggs from the same nest laid by a Wonga Pigeon, 44 AHliEID/E. and the nest was at last appropriated in the same season by the ^'eliow-necked Manf^rove Bittern, tliree eggs being laid in the nest. (Jn 27th October, kjoS, scooped a set of three eggs of this species from a nest on a horizontal limb of an Acacia overhanging Maguire Creek, near Alstonville, the nest being placed twenty-eight feet above the surface of the water, and from the same nest on 23rd October, 1909, scooped a second set of three e^gs, pro\ ing that this species will lay again in the same nest after being roblied. I previously had a similar experience with this species. The usual breeding months are October to January, and a reference to my note book discloses the fact that during the period from December i.S99to January 1909, thirteen sets were obtained, and of this number nine of the sets contained three eggs each, and four sets contained four eggs each. Of these thirteen sets four were taken in the month of October, two in November, four in r3ecember, and three in January, the earliest date recorded being 12th October and tlie latest date (the eggs being fresh) 7th January." From Copmanhurst, in the Upper Clarence River District, New South Wales, J\ir. George Savidge writes : — " The Yellow-necked Mangrove Bittern (Dupctor f;oii!di ) is sparingly dispersed along the banks of the Clarence River: also about small creeks, swamps and lagoons, and I have seen it in the dense scrubs if a watercourse exists there. I have not noticed this bird so plentiful at Yamba or near to the entrance as higher up the river. The nest is a flat structure of sticks and twigs, usually built over water, from ten to twenty-five feet above the surface. If not disturbed they breed in the same place for several seasons, and I have known them to use the deserted nest of Butoridcs sldi^'unti/is. The earliest date on which I have taken the eggs was the 7th September, and the latest date the 26th January ; both of these sets were perfectly fresh. I believe they rear two broods yearly, one in September or October and another brood in December or January. The eggs vary very considerably for a sitting, sometimes only two are laid, mostly three and four, and one nest I found contained five eggs. This bird disperses itself over a far wider range of country, and seems to have more of a nocturnal habit than Butovides stagnatilis. It is not unusual to flush it from amongst reeds by the side of water holes or swamps. A nest I saw the birds commencing to build contained the full complement of four eggs within ten days. It was a very wet dark afternoon when I found it, and both birds were carrying sticks as fast as they could, one after another. Upon my approach some days after, the bird which was sitting on the eggs hopped away from the nest, and assumed a straight horizontal position; it straightened itself out full length, as straight as any walking stick, with its bill pointing straight up and its feathers pressed in close to the sides of its body. I knew the bird was there, for I had not taken my eyes from the spot ; even then I was some seconds before I located it. I pulled my boat away, and left it undisturbed. No doubt when danger threatens it often assumes this position. I once found a nest and took the eggs of the Little Mangrove Bittern, and about a month after noticed a Bittern fly from the clump of trees, and on searching the old nest, found it contained four eggs o{ Dupctor gonldi, hnt they had been robbed of their eggs previously. As soon as these birds are robbed they start to build again, that is how I obtained so many sets in 1894. They are very fond of building in a willow tree hanging over the water. During the dry season of September, October and November, 1895, a large number disappeared at breeding time, but came back again after the end of the year. Several pairs are about here now. After being rolibed a time or two, they build further back from the water, which makes it harder to find them. " On the 2nd March, 1895, ^ found a nest of the Yellow-necked Mangrove Bittern containing three half-grown young ones, and on the 6th November, 1896, a set of three eggs of the same species. The bird had put a few fresh sticks on the top of a Little Mangrove Bittern's nest, from which I had taken three eggs of the latter species about six weeks before. This is the second time I have known Dupetov goiildi to do this, and on both occasions it had appropriated old nests of the Little Mangrove Bittern. The Yellow-necked Mangrove Bittern HOTAURUS. 45 is much the rarer of the two species frequenting this district, and this is the first set of eggs I have tai(7/);;(7('(!^ was resting on the beach near Point Cloates, and allowed me to ride within a few yards of them before taking flight, when they settled on the sea. In igoo numbers of them freijuented Hooded flats, thirty miles inland from Point Cloates. At Broome Hill one bird was seen at one of my stock' tanks in November, 1905." The eggs vary in number for a sitting, five to eight often being found, but Mr. J. A. Boyd took a set of twelve in the Herbert River District, in North-eastern Queensland, and Mr. G. Savidge has a set of fourteen taken at Ulmarra, on the Clarence River, New South Wales. They are oval or elongate oval in form, coarse grained, with numerous pittings, of a creamy or dull yellowish-white, lustrous, and usually more or less clouded with yellowish-brown or brown nest stains. A set of five taken by Mr. J. A. Boyd measures as follows : — " Length (A) 2-86 x 16 /)8 I'l.Kcriim'rKiiiN*:. 2-i8 inches; (B) 2-Sg x 2-o6 inches ; (0)3-05 x j-i6 inches; (U) 2'8 x 1-98 inches; (E) 2-83 X 2'i inches. Anotlier set of five, taken near IJlniarra, measures: — Length (A) 2-85 x 2-08 inches; (1-!) 3-05 x 2-08 inches: (C) 3-25 x 2-i inches; (D) 3-12 x 2-15 inches: (li) 3'i x -'■12 inches. A set of twelve taken by Mr. |. A. J:!oyd at Goose Lagoon, in tiie Merbert River District, during the first week of Maicli, i8yi, measures : —Lenglii (A) 2-82 x 2-04 inches; (ij) 2-87 X 2-07 inches; (C) 2-83 v 2-14 inches; ( D) 2-83 x 2-J2mches; (L) 2-87 x 2-12 inches; (F) 2-85 x 2-o7inclies; (0)3-15 x 2-15 inches; (H)2-y4 x 2-07 inches; (1)2-89 ^ 2-09 inches; (J) 3-13 x 2-22 inches; (K) 2-9 x .:-07 inclies; (L) 3-18 x 2-13 inches. Immature birds may be distin,L;uished by liaving the scapulars black and some of the feathers on the flanks l)lackish-brou-n. In Eastern Australia the breeding season is e.xtremely varied, and probably, it is greatly influenced by the rainfall. In the Herbert River District Mr. J. .\. lioyd has sent me notes of finding nests with eggs in January, February and Marcli. .At IJlmarra, in the Clarence River District, many nests with eggs were found at the latter end of July, and new nests in October; while in Riverina, in the southern portion of the State, nests with eggs are common from October to December. In the Northern Territory of South Australia the breeding period is usually in the rainy season in the early months of the year, and in October, 1909, I saw a large number of immature birds in the possession of M. Octave Le lion, who informed me they had been netted near Port Darwin in August of that year. Sub-family PLECTROPTERIN^. Nettopus pulchellus. GREEN PYGMY GOOSE. A^etta/iiit: palchrHus, Liovik\, Froi:. Zoo\. 80c., 18-Il,p. 89; id., Eds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. I (1848) ; ;,/., llaiidbk. l!ds. Austr., Vol. 11 , p. 3.^>7 (ISCt)). Ni-.Uu/nis jiufchelliiK, ii>i\vn(i., C.).t. lids, lirit. .Mus. Vol. .\XVII., p. 67(1898); Sliarpe, Hand-l. Bds., Vol. I., p. -209 (1899). Adui.t m.\lk. — Crmru nj thr hiuid hroiin, Irtnisrerticli/ barred with dull dark yreeu\ iivck iiMiUl'', hack, ifcii/iu/ar.-i and 11,/ijifr nnag-coverls dark 'llu^ay yrceii ; primaries black ; secondaries while until, yreeuish-blticli Ijnsea : ii/j/ier tail-coverls (/rrtitt^/i-lilnck, irreyularly barred ur freckled with white ; tail,-J'ealhers bltiek ivUh a shyhl yreeiiish ylosx ; lirres, a bare vval. patch below the eye and the chin white, remainder 0/ the under surface /vhite, each feather of tJie fore-neck and, sides of the -neck ha rim/ tnio or inure yreenish-hlack crrsceiUic iiiarkiitijs, the black predominatini/ in the centre of the fore-neck, and the yreen liiivards tlic )iind-neck ; the jlank f-atlirrs similarly marked ivitli black; nnder l,ail- coverls broimish-bbick : bill dark yreenish-yrey, the nail a,nd a spot on each side of the npper mandible Jlesh-tvhite : the under inandihlr jhsh. colour, blotched iijith yreenish-grey ; iris dark brown. Total length ill tin' Jlesh Ui\'5 inches, wiug H-fi, tail •>'-..', bill 1, tarsns 1. Adult fkmalk. — Similar in phimicge to the iii iseapidars toith darker hrnini, centres ; apical half of tlie primaries, tips if the secondaries, upper and nnder /ail-coverts ami /ail feathers bron iiish-hUick. 7'iifiil h-nylh ■!// i'nches, ivitiij IS, tail 8, I'Hl 175, tnrsns ,jv7. Adult female. Similar in phiniage In thr nialf. I )istiiliniio!i. — Victoria, Soutli Australia, W'ebteni .\ustralia, some of the Islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania. f u(^ H K range of the Cape Barren Goose e.\tendso\er the st)utheni portions of the Australian J- coast from east to west, also the coastal districts of Tasmania; it is, liowever, far more abundantly distributed on the contiguous islands, and particularly some of those of Bass Strait. C>n the mainland it is probably more common in South-western X'ictoria than elsewhere. In my school days I can remember when these birds were fairly plentilul in a state of domestication near Melbourne, and on one occasion an apparently wild but disabled bird was captured on the sand dunes near Hobson Bay, between Albett Park and St. Kilda. Occasionally, too, these birds were e.xposed for sale alive in the poulterer's shops in I\'Ielbourne, where they were well known to school boys as " Pig Geese," from their disagreeable grunt-like notes. I am informed that they are still bred for sale by a resident of the Western District of Victoria, although farther south, near the coast, wild birds are destroyed on account of the quantities of grass consumed by them. In South .\ustralia Mr. ,\. /eitz informs me tliat it still breeds on some islands in Spencer (.iulf, laying four or five eggs for a sitting. In Western Australian waters in 1900-1, the officers of H.M.S. "Penguin" found it breeding in numbers on the islands of Recherche Archipelago. Feasting for a long time on salt provisions, the officers found these Geese eggs a welcome addition to their larder. Ciould remarks : — " This is one of the .Australian birds which particularly attracted the notice of the earlier voyagers to that country, by nearly every one of whom it is mentioned as being very plentiful on all the islands of I:>ass Straits, and so tame that it might easily be knocked down with stick's, or even captured by hand; dining my sojourn in the country I visited many of the localities above mentioned, and found so far from its being still numerous, it is almost e.vtirpated ; I killed a pair on Isabella Island, one of a small group near Flinders Island, on the 12th January, 1839."" It is pleasing to record, however, some seventy years later, that although diminished in numbers undoubtedly since the advent of white men, and the placing of the remnant of the Tasmanian race on some of the larger islands of Bass Strait, these interesting Geese may still be foimd there. From Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. .\ustin wrote me on 19th November, 1009 : — " A few years ago Cape Barren Geese (Cereopsis novee-hoUaiuUir ) were rattier numerous throughout the Western District of Victoria, and were always a favourite bird ♦ Handbk. Bds. Austr , Vol. II , p. 350 (1855). CKKEOPSIS. (il with the sportsmen. To shoot them, however, their habits iiad to he thoroughly understood ; in the hrst place, in their native state, they are one of tlie wildest of Australian birds; secondly they are very seldom seen anywhere near cover from which they could be shot. When they fly it is usually in the same direction each time, and at no great height, so it is only those who know where to find them and where they are most likely to fly who can shoot them." Dr. W. Macgilhvray sent me the following note while resident at Hamilton, in the Western District of \'ictoria: — " A few Cape Barren Geese (Cevcopsii nova-hollandiii) are observed almost every year in different parts of the district, and occasionally small flocks. They were, I learn, fairly common several years ago." From Melbourne, X'ictoria, Mr. G. .\. Keartland wrote me: — "Although several islands in Bass Strait are generally regarded as the home of the Cape Barren Goose, these birds occasion- ally visit some of the swamps of the Western District of X'ictoria, where they are soon killed by some of the duck shooters. Around the coast of Western .Australia they are often seen flying from adjacent islands to the mainland. At Green Island they breed freely, laying from three to five eggs, and rearing two broods in a season. They thrive and breed in domestication, but are quarrelsome with other poultry." From Dr. Lonsdale Holden's notes I have extracted the following undei date 8th September, 1899 : — " Dr. If. H. Montgomery, .Vnglican Bishop of Tasmania, has just returned from a visit of several days to the Flinders Group of islands in Bass Strait. He devoted an afternoon to the investigation of Cape Barren Geese (Cti-copsis noViC-holhvuUit), and was shown birds, nests, eggs and young. Descriptive of his visit Dr. Montgomery wrote as follows in the ' Church News of Tasmania,' October, 1899: — ' JMy readers are aware, doubtless, that the Cape Barren Goose is one of the rare birds of the world. It is one of the three Tasmanian Geese, I believe, and its range is confined to the southern and western half of the Furneaux Islands. I doubt whether there are more than one hundred and twenty nests in the year. I mention these facts in order that we may enlist the sympathies of sportsmen in preserving this bird. What is rare and harmless ought surely to be fostered. We do not possess much in Tasmania which is of unique interest, and we owe it to the world to conserve the rare creatures. Here is a bird known to all naturalists everywhere as one of the most interesting in the world. It is incredible that men of sense can shoot it down as if these geese were so many quail or rabbits. Such action implies a course of selfishness not pleasant to contemplate. Indeed, I believe that a party of Tasmanian sportsmen who lately shot forty of these birds on a certain island, and did not even trouble to pick them all up, had no idea how rare these birds were. Had they known it their conduct would have deserved general reprobation. If these lines meet the eyes of any who hereafter cruise for sport in the Bass Straits, we respectfully urge upon them to remember that it is our duty to preserve, not to destioy, perhaps the rarest goose in the world. No one can object to the killing of a specimen at the right season, but to shoot down these geese for the pot is like shooting rare Birds of Paradise in New Guinea for the same purpose. It is also worth making public the fact that those who find the eggs of this bird must not touch them unless they take them away for their museum. The birds upon their return will break all their eggs if any have been handled in the nest, and their sense of smell is very acute. It is also certain that the close season for these birds must be extended. Their young have been tak'en on the 20th June, so that the eggs must have been laid in May, and fresh eggs have also been found up to the middle of September. My readers will excuse me if I do not record the islands where these birds breed; it would be no kindness to the birds. Suffice it to say that on a Tuesday in August I went with the Maclaines to a certain island where the birds were breeding. Landing quickly we found a pair on their nest ; of course the old birds fled, and we had leisure to look at the two eggs, in a nest thickly lined with down. Like the Ducks they cover up the eggs when they Iea\e them, and we had to lift up some of this stuft' before the eggs were visible ; but we took 16 62 CIIKNOSETTIN'/E. care not to handle tlie eggs, since we did not want to take them. Meanwhile it was clear that the other nests no longer held the young birds, so we searched for the goslings, and soon saw a pretty sight. The parents had detected our presence, and having collected their four young ones they were swimming with them in a little bay, and thence out to sea. In a few moments more we discovered another brood ; this time the old birds were on a rock some seven feet above the water, with their young around them ; on our approach they all plunged into the water and made seawards. It was an interesting sight, all the more so because these geese are never seen at other times in the water; they seem to dislike swinmiing and keep on the land. Trying again elsewhere we were fortunate enough to capture a young bird before it reached the water, a grey creature, marked with black' bands, and as hard and elastic as india-rubber. It did not seem particularly terrified, although the parent tlew round giving vent to an.\ious cries. We returned the young one to the water, and it, with its two companions, swam on to a rock some fifty yards away, where they rested quite content and without fear until the two old birds in time joined them. These Geese apparently dislilce the presence of cattle, and never breed where they are, but they have no objection to sheep." On the 22nd January, 1900, Mr. E. D. Atkinson also kindly forwarded me some notes prepared by Bishop Montgomery, relative to this species, but there is very little to be added to those he prexiously published. He remarks: — "The nest is large and rather flat, and well lined with down. Four eggs are usually laid, but seven have been found. On any day in July twenty nests could be found on either of two small islands. Many eggs are taken, and over so large an area there is no preventing it, but fortunately i\lr. Maclaine, J. P., preserves them. These Geese feed solely on grass." It breeds readily in confinement, and I am indebted to Dr. Eric Sinclair (Trustee) for a description of the nest and eggs of this species, who kindly allowed me to examine those in his possession. One of several pairs of these birds had chosen for the site of their nest a clump of bamboo canes, growing in a small enclosure in a paddock. The nest was made on the ground, and was composed of the dried leaves and strips of stiff paper-like debris of the bamboo, intermingled with down plucked off the breast of the birds. It measured sixteen inches across externally, and contained three eggs of a dirty white colour: — Length (A) 2-93 x 2-12 inches; (B) 2-94 x 2-12 inches; (C) 3-15 ■< 2-ii inches. Both birds vigorously defended their nest, and showed every sign of resentment at the intrusion on their domain. The young are clothed in pure white down, and ha\ e a narrow stripe down the centre of the head and hind-neck, and a broader one on the side of the head, brown ; a broad band down the centre, and another at the side of the body and wings, brown. Sub-family OHENONETTIN^. C3-erL\n.s oiaiEisroiisrEar'T'.ii^, /i,;,niin/>, iipjiKr tdd-curi'rls niid fml hlm'k j Ir'sstr mnl in"ilniii iijiper irnir/ rofurts, /''rtiari'H and scapiiliirs i/fi'i/, llic liiltKT lir(ij"'d ii-ilh irliiti', : loiinj s/it'cn/uin rto/v«,s- f/tf .-ircoii'liirii's brilliaiil ylos^y-yri'fii, lln- npiail portion nj lltf outer seconjlarie^ irtiile ; prinuirifs dark hroivn, blackish on, their outer )vel)x ; feathers of the breast (/rei/ish-n-hite at tlie base, bronui in the centre, bbickisli at the sides, a'itJi a mmided n'ftite spot at the tip, qinnit this part a ntottled ajipearanr.e .■ centre of the htu^er breast, abilomen ami n,itder tail-curerts ylossy black : sides of louver breast and flanks grei/, each feather crossed ivith nntneroas nmry black lines; bill olire-hnnrii, : lei/s mid feet dark brou^it ; iris dark broivn. 'I'lital lenijtli. ,iO'> inches, icimj lilf,'i, tail J/'-'i, bill 1'17, tarsus IS. Adult female. — General colnnr almre qreijish'broirn : outer ii'ebs of tlie seapniars blarkisli : lo9ver part of the back, ramp and tail blm-k : upper tail-coverts yreyish-broim like, the back: iving xpecnIuiH -not so bright (is in the male ,■ Iiead ami neck pale bro/ni, ; a niirrou) line uf feathers orer the ei/e, and a broader one coniinencing near the base of tlie under mandible and. e.rtending underneath the ei/e OH to the ear-corerts white, Jiiiely freckled irith pale broivn ; chin ami throat a-hite freckleil ivith pale broani : breast and flanks bronin, darker on tin upper breast, paler on the flanks, each, feather broadly tipped and crossed in the centre, irith ivhite : centre of the breast, abdomen and iimler tail-coverts while. Total length IS inches. Distribntion. — North-western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Mctoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. |InN addition to affording:; capital sport in the tneld, and the excellence of its tlesh, the Maned Jl Goose, or " Wood I )uci< " as it is more frequently called, is one of the handsomest and most beautifully marked species of the family Anatiim: inhabitint; Australia and Tasmania. Although this bird is termed a " Wood Duck " owing to its arboreal habits, it is by no means confined to timbered localities, and is often found on the brackish lagoons near the coast associated with other species. The first specimen I saw was a handsome old male, shot in company with Black Duck and Teal, between St. Kilda and Albert Park, near Melbourne. It is, however, more abundantly distributed in the wooded margins of rivers, creeks and lakes inland, and occurs in favourable situations over all but the extreme northern por- tions of the Australian continent, and is found likewise in Tas- mania. MANED GOOSE. In the early days of settlement of New South Wales, large tlocks used to frequent the neighbourhood of Sydney, but owing to the progress of civilization many of the feeding grounds have been cleared and drained, and the birds driven to more congenial haunts. It is satisfactory to know that although their numbers have largely decreased, it has not been wholly exterminated, and a few pairs still breed, usually every season, within an hour's railway journey from the city. Dr. Latham lirst figured this species in the Supplement to his " General Synopsis of Birds," in i8or, under the 64 CIIENONETTIN*. name of the " HawUesbury Duck," from the locality in which lie stated it was at that time common. Subsequently he characterised it in tiie same year in the Supplement to his " Index ( )niitholo;.;icus " as Amis jiihata. This species has a peculiar call note which, when once heard, renders it at once easy to distinguish, even a Ion;,' distance away. Mr. J. A. Boyd, while resident at Ripple Creek, Herbert River, North-eastern Oueensland, wrote me as follows under date 14th Sep- tember, 1888 : — " A few weeks ago I saw three Wood Ducks, and bagged two of them ; during six years duck shooting here I have never come across any before." Writing again later he remarks : — " I shot a Wood Duck on the i8th April, 1892, a very rare bird here." From Cobborah Station, Cobborah, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. Austin wrote : — " The Maned Goose (Chcnonctta luhatt! I is usually plentilul throughout the district, especially after the breeding season is finished, when they congregate in large flocks, and give good shooting to the sportsmen. They, however, take more shooting than any of the Ducks, not that they are a faster bird on the wing, but because they are so much more diffi- cult to kill. To have good results in shooting them one requires No. 2 shot, whereas for other Duck shooting 1 prefer Nos. 4 and 6 shot. Its call note is rather remarkable, being loud and clear, and can be heard a long way ofl, especially when llying. They do not call out conspicuously when llying in flocks, but just one bird at a time, and at intervals of about ten second.^ : sometimes they fly silently, especially in open country. When flying low through timber one is at least calling out, and from watching my pet ones I noticed it was always the female which did so; the males are very silent. Although they are mostly found near water, seldom in it, more often upon a log or on a nice green patch of grass, and yet again upon the bank of a dam, where there is nothing growing. When disturbed they usually fly round a few times, then settle either in dead trees or in water ; if the latter they give a few low cackling grunts and then swim for the dry land. Long before the breeding season they pair off, and one pair will occupy the same locality for some weeks, then for a while only one bird will be seen, wliich has become very tame, usually the male, although both hiids help with the incubation. Where they breed in great numbers one pair of old birds will sometimes take possession of CUTTING INTO A MANK.I) GOOSB S NESTINO-PLACK. CHKNO.VETTA. 65 several families. At Wamhiana Station, on the Macqiiarie River, my brother and self saw a pair of old birds with over fifty youn;,' ; we tried to count them, but could not, but were sure there were over fifty, and we could easily distinguish four different clutches, probably more. They prefer a dead tree to nest in, but are often found nesting in living Red Gums. As a rule they go a little distance away from the water for nesting purposes, and not in a tree overhanging water, such as other species of Uucks prefer. I found one sitting upon eight eggs in a dead Ilox-tree near Narromine, (|uite two miles from the nearest water; many people might think the young from a nest so situated would never live to reach water, but my own opinion is they do, and very quickly; young Ducks, even though only just out of the nest, are wonderfully active on their legs, and are most difficult to catch, either upon dry land or in water." From Copmanluirst, New South Wales, Mr. (leorge Savidge writes me as follows: — "The Maned tioose {Chhintydoclh-ii jtibata ) is fairly well distributed in this district, especially on the upper reaches of the Clarence River. It shows a decided preference to chains of waterholes and small creeks not too heavily timbered, and feeds a good deal out of the water, eating the grass and herbage on the river and creek banks, sometimes on flats some distance from water. It breeds in a spout or hole of a dead tree, some distance from water, and lays nine or ten eggs fur a sitting." Mr. Percy Peir writes from Marrickville, near Sydney: — "Early in November, 1907, whilst in the Mudgee District, we noticed se\eral pairs of Wood Ducks (Cliciwuctta /iilmtii) with young. One Duck, with about seven or eii;ht young, remained flat on the ground until we were almost upon them, when she beat her wings amongst and scattered them in all directions. Out of tills brood two were captured, and afterwards successfully reared under a Muscovy Duck, who covered them along with her own family. This pair turned out to be drake and duck', and mixed up with the general poultry until the following spring, when, not being pinioned, they took to wing never to return." Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me as follows from Melbourne, \'ictoria: — "The Maned Goose or 'Wood Duck' is found in most parts of .Australia in which fresh water exists. Although found in flocks at times, these birds are more often seen in pairs. At Melton, \'ictoria, they breed in the hollow Box timber, and along the Murray and Murrumliidgee Rivers, in Riverina, they may be seen leaving their nests or leading their bro'ds of ducklings in the water. I have seen young ones unable to fly, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, in May, but in Western .\ustralia young ones in the down may be found any time between May and February. The Maned Goose is in request as a game bird, owing to the delicacy of its flesh. If captured young they make great pets, and soon learn to answer the call at feeding time like domestic poultry." riie eggs are usually nine to eleven in number for a sitting, oval, elongated-oval or elliptical in form, varying in colour from a cream to a creamy-white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. A set of nine in the .-Vustralian Museum Collection, rather above the average measurement, taken by Mr. Edward Lord Ramsay at Wattagoona Station, Western New South Wales, in August, 1889, measures : — Length (.\) 2-24 x 1-73 Indies; (P>) 2-45 x 1-73 inches; (C) 2-43 X 1-73 inches; (D) 2-25 x 1-7 inches; (E) 2-43 x 172 inches; (F) 2-22 x 173 inches; (G) 2-23 x 17 inches; (II) 2-27 x i'57 inches; (1) 2-27 x 173 inches. A set of ten eggs in ]\Ir. Thos. P. ,\ustin's collection, taken for him by Mr. George Patterson at Bonny Plains, about eight miles up the Talbragar River from Cobborah Station, the nesting place being in a hollow in a Red Gum-tree, about twelve feet from the ground, measures as follows: — Len,i;tli (A) 2-2 x 1-58 inches; (B) 2-2 x i-h inches; (C) 2-12 x 1-58 inches; (D) 2-22 x 1-56 inches; (1-2) 2-18 x i-6 inches; (F) 2-19 x 1-58 inches; (G) 2-17 x 1-58 inches; (H) 2-18 x 1-5 inches; (I) 2-09 x i'56 inches; (J) 2-13 x 1-57 inches. .A set of eight eggs on the point of hatching, taken by Mr. .Austin on the iitli September, 1909, from a hole in a dead Red Gum- 66 ANATIN^. tree, about two lumdred yards from a la,L;oon on Cobborah Station, measures : — Length (A) 2t6 X i'55 inches; (15) 2-17 x i-(iinches: (C)2-i3 x 1-57 inches; (0)2-36 x 1-58 inches; (K) 2-22 X 1-58 inches: (F) 2-36 x 1-55 inches; (0)2-23 x 1-58 inches; (11)2-23 ^ 1-58 inches. Auijust until the end of |anu:iry constitutes the usual breedinj:^ season of the Maned Goose in Eastern Austraha, Init it is .L;reatly inliuenced by the season : the late Mr. Geor<,'e Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, sent me a note that his sons had found a nest containing nine eggs on the 7th June, 1889. In Central Australia Mr. C. E. Cowle informs me it is after the rainy season sets in, in March and April, Mr. Keartland, while there in 1894 with the Horn Scientific Expedition, recording young birds being caught unable to ily on the 19th May. Subfamily ANATIN^. <3-sn.-as iD:E;isriDisoc!~2"<3-nsr^i^, SicaiusoH. Dendrocygna arcuata. WHISTLING TRE-EDUCK. Aims arnnUti, Cuvier, in Mas. Paris ; Horsf., Zool. Research in Java, pi. G-'i (18'2-2). Dnii/roc;/ (I860) : Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Miis., Vol. XXVII., p. IG.'i (1895) ; Sharp.-, H.iud-I. ISds,, Vol. I., p. 21.5 (1809). Adult malb. — (Teneray ciiliiar ahuoe In-nirii iftlh nn oHcf f:/iade, thf fcn/licrs af //(>• n/tpi'i- hack anil siiiii'' of ihf. si'ii./inliirs riin!iisli/ ni'i ri/'i m-il tvitli .^trii/r or ijrlli)iri-ili-ivhlte ; iviiuis like tin; back ; ii.jipir liiil-i:iii'i'.i-lii ijilhiii-i^li huff] /•'icli /iiith'T /kiciiiij a niimdi''! s/mf nii, ni/Jifr ireb aitd a broad ti/i of dark bro/rn. .■ mmj) and fad ijark brmru : croicn of fhc Iieail and Iiind-ni'ek jxdi: oclireous-brun'u, llie nidi's (i/ ih". /ii'iid and iii'ck /iiiJ''r : throat dnJI irliili- ; J'ori'-nick pali' ocliri'oii-- broirn ; breast pale ehesliiat broivn, Irnnsrerse/i/ barred, ivitii bhick, lohich is riclier in. colour, and more dislinctjij marked at the sides ; abdomen and nnder l.ail-corerts pale bnff'i/-n'hile : Jetiijtlteued lanceolate /lank plumes pale iielloivish-biiff, mariiini'd ivith black : bill pale /'eddis/i hroinn, tin- upper iniinddile conspicaousli/ blotched with black ; leys and feet jleshiphroivn ; ins dark bnnvn. Total leni/t/i in the jlesli IS inche.s, iving 9'o, tail S'd, bill 17, tarsus :i-1 . Adult fkmalk. — Similar m plumai/e to the male, Diitribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia. ^T^flE range of Eyton's Tree-Duck e.\tends throughout the Australian States, but it is -L more sparingly distributed in the southern pi^rtionsof the continent. After an abundant rainfall it is unusually plentiful on the Barwon, Warrego and Culgoa Ri\'ers, in North- DKNliIiOCVfiSA. G9 western New South Wales. It is e\clasi\ely a Iresh water Duck", and is generally met with in the shallow water near the margins of swamps and rivers, except durini; the breeding' season, when it resorts to well f;rassed countiy some distance from water. Livinp; chiefly on a ve^^etable diet, which consists principally of the tender buds of various aijuatic plants and u'rasses, its tlesh is much esteemed as an article of food, and for delicacy of llavour is considered by some to surpass that of any other Ducic inlialiitinL,' Australia. DuriuL; some seasons one may frequently observe hangiuLj at the doors or in the windows of our poulterer's shops in Sydney, numbers of these birds. More especially fire they to be seen after an unusually heavy rainfall and Hoods, and in dry seasons they are conspicuous by their absence, at least from the markets and shops of the metropolis. Some specimens, apparently immature, have the dull white of the throat extendinj^ on to the sides of the neclc, which is greyish-white ; also the upper portion of the foreneck ; the black transverse barrings on the breast are narrow and less distinct, and the lanceolate Hank- plumes have broader black'ish margins. Wing s-j inches. Mr. G. A. Keartland sends me the following notes from Melbourne, X'ictoria: — " It is a common occurrence to find Eyton's Tree-l>uck' ( iJciidroivgiia cytoiii ) in company with the Whistling E>uck. In fact on one occasion I killed fis'e of the former and six of the latter at one shot. They are found in the same localities and are of similar habits to DcndrocvL^na arcuata." Mr. Tom Carter writes me: — '• Di-udrocywna cytoni is one of the commonest species of Duck in North-western Australia." For an opportunity of examining and describing the eggs of I'^yton's Tree-Duck I am indebteil to Mr. S. Robinson, an ardent sportsman and oologist, who found these birds breeding near that famous resort of wild-fowl in New South Wales, the Macijuarie Marshes. While shooting on Buckiinguy Station, on the 23rd September, 1893, in the long cane-grass about one third of a mile from an ana-branch of the Mac(iuarie River, he flushed one of these birds, which he ([uickly lired at, and it fell. As he moved forward to pick it up, he almost stepped on the nest, which was l)uilt at the side of a tussock of cane-grass. It was a slight hollow in the soil, lined only with short pieces of cane-grass, and contained nine fresh eggs. Evidently the Ducks ii.id just begun to lay, for although twelve of them were obtained only one more nest was found tliat day, which was similarly constructed and had two eggs in it. Later on, in the same locality, another nest was found containing seven fresh eggs. From these nests the Ducks had made runs or tracks throuj^h the long cane-grass to the water's edge. All the eggs when found were perfectly clean, and entirely free from the usual feet marks of the female or stains of any kind. Two average eggs from the set of nine are oval in form, tapering somewhat shar[ily t'lwards the smaller end, and are comparatively small for the size of the bird. In colour they are milk-white, with an almost imperceptible tinge of cream, and have a slight satiny lustre. The shell is thick, smooth and exceedingly hard, and Mr. Robinson compared it to Hint when he was engaged in drilling the eggs; they measure as follows: — Length (A) I'qi >■, 1-36 inches; (B) rSS x 1-36 inches. These eggs may be easily distinguished from those of any member of the family ANATiD.t; inhabiting .Australia by their being almost pure white. When held in the hand, and the shells are rubbed together, the sound produced is the same as if they were made of porcelain. A set of ten eggs in Mr. G. A. Keartland's collection, taken on the 7th March, 1902, near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, are of a milk white where the original colour is revealed, but they are much nest stained, some being of a uniform, others of a partial brown hue. They measure: — Length (A) 1-97 x 1-45 inches; (B) 1-92 X 1-48 inches; (C) 1-83 x 1-45 inches; (D) 1-98 x i'47 inches; (E) 1-95 x 1-45 inches; (V) 1-83 x 1-4 inches; (G) 1-95 x 1-5 inches; (H) i'94 x 1-49 inches; (I) 1-84 x 1-49 inches; (J) 1-9 x 1-52 inches. 18 70 ANATIN.E. Mr. Kubinson, wntinj,' ine from lUickiinijuy Stntion, New South Wales, on the 15th xMay, iSg?, reiiiarl^ed ; — " Xo waterfowl will we have breeding,' here this season in consequence of the severe drouL^lit. All the reed-beds are dry and eaten, or burnt off to destroy the wild pigs and the water rats. These animals kill more game than all the guns this side of the Blue Mountanis." In New Soutli Wales September and the three followin,f,' months constitute the breeding season. In the Northern Territory of South Australia it begins in the rainy season in February and continues until the end of May or middle of June. Casarca tadornoides. SHELDRAKE. Anas tadornoith's, Jard. and Selliy, III. 'Jrn., Vol. II., pi. Ixii. (1828). Cnsarca tadornoides, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. 7 (1S48) ; if/., Handbk. Bd.s. Austr., Vol.11., p. 361 (186.^); Salvad., Oat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVIl., p. 1S.5 (18',).")); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 21", (1899). Addi.T M.\LE (in lirpcding pluiiiagf). — /lark and scu/iidiirs black, freckled leith fnl niuti iinrruiv and broken /rnitsrerse liarrnujs : upper nniiy-corerts wJii/e : /iriinnries black : imlir irebs of tlie secondaries glossij-greeti, llieir iiiiirr ui-bs black ; te.rliaries ric/i c/ies/mit, greijish on the i^tiier icebs and tips : upper and niider tail-corerts and tail-featliers black, glossed nntlt green, wltich is mure distinct on their inargins : liead (i nil nppier part oj iieck dark glossipgreen ; Unrer portion oj neck, nptjier buck and breast chestnut, separated in the middle 0/ the neck b// a ring of ichite feathers . Inner portion of the breast, abdomen attd/lntiks black, Jinel)/ freckled like the lou-er back and scnpnlurs ti'ifh fnlrons or vhity-bron^n : " irides brinrn ; bill black ; leg^ greyish-black" {Gou]d). Total length JI) inches, iving lJp7, tail 0, bill :.' Id, tarsus 2-S. Adult fkmale — " The sexes mag be distinguished by the smaller size of the female, as u-ell as by the ivhole of her markings being less pure, and by the ring of ivhite or tuotlled featfiers wfiic/i snrriinnil tlie base of the bill " (Gould). l)ishibiilioii. — North-western .Australia, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. /~|^ HE stronghold of the Sheldrake or "Mountain Duck ' is the southern portion of the -L Australian Continent and Tasiuania. It is probably commonest in parts of Western N'ictoria, also near the Murray Kiver, in Riverina. In New South Wales it is more frequently seen in the mountainous districts in the south-eastern portion of the State, and in some seasons is numerous at Lake George and Lake Bathurst. I have never heard of its occurrence in the northern portion of the State. Gould received it from South .Australia and Tasmania, Mr. G. A. Keartland, while a member of the Calvert E.xploring Expedition, met with it near Lake Way, in Western Australia, and later on near the Fitzroy Kiver, in North-western Australia, where, however, it appears to be extremely rare. Having never luet with this species in a state of nature, nor had an opportunity of ascertaining the sex of the female by dissection, I have transcribed Gould's description of the latter. There is, however, a mounted specimen in the .Australian Museum Collection which agrees fairly well with Gould's description, which in addition to the ring of white feathers around the base of the bill has similar well defined white rings around the eyes: this, however, may be due to immaturity. CASAIiCA. "I From Cobbonih Station, Cobliora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. .\iistin wrote:- " ( )n Barwon Park Station, near Winclielsea, \'ictoria, the Mountain Ducis (Casiii-in tadonioidcs ) was to be seen on the brackish and salt kikes at all times of the year, but never in very lar;^'e numbers. Althoui^h not looked upon as a suital)le bird lor the table, consequently never shot at, they were always very wild, in fact the wildest of all the l)ucks. .\ few pairs bred on this station es'ery year, as I always saw young birds about, often just hatched, but it was a puzzle to me where they had their nests; I never found one or heard of one beiuL; found. The only trees about were a few Ked Gums aloni; the kJarwon Piver. It was a most unusual thing to see any of these Ducks at fresh water." L)r. W". Mac^^illivray, while resident at Hamilton, in the Western District of Victoria, wrote me as follows : — " Of the Axatin.+; found here Ctisnirn tadoi'iioidts is the earliest breeder, eggs being obtainable in July and early in August. This species is usually seen in pairs, but I once counted forty in a flock on a swamp on tlie Murndal Estate. It is very wary, leaving a swamp or lai;oon when the first shot is tired and not returning again ; most other Ducks will circle round and round and alight more than once before becoming thorouf.;hly alarmed." Mr. G. A. Keartland sends me tlie following notes from Melbourne, \'ictoria : — " Tiie SUMra-ke (Cdsai'Lti tadoi'iioidis J is found all over the .Vustralian continent. 1 have shot these birds in Southern X'ictoria and in North-western Australia, but the Western District of Victoria and the swamps in the vicinity of the Murray River, appear to be their favourite haunts. Except when the young ones are with their parents they are usually found in pairs. They breed in hollow branches, preference being given to trees overhanging water. When the brood is hatched the old bird swims under the nest and calls the little ones, which jump down into the water, flapping their little wings and working their feet as they drop. As soon as they are all dow.i the old bird swims away to a nice landing place. Their flesh is somewhat coarse, although they are grass feeders." Dr. E. P. Ramsay remarks: — "Mr. Whittell informs me he found the nest oi C a suii a ^i7(/or;;ii/(/('s placed on the ground behind amass of Polygonum bushes; it was made with grass and debris with a few sticks; tlie eggs were eight in number, and co\ered over with the grass lining of the nest. I have never taken the eggs of this bird myself, but Mr. P. Faithful informed me of a nest similarly placed on the banks of a creek on his estate near Goulburn." Gould states that " in South Australia it breeds annually at Gawler, on all the alluvial llats abounding in that district ; it is also said to deposit its eggs in the hollow spouts and boles of the lofty Gum-trees." Mr. S. F. Mann informs me that near Caramut, in South-western \'ictoria, it breeds freely, resorting to holes in the hollow branches of trees, and I have seen eggs taken in the same part of \'ictoria from a nesting-place in a hollow stump standing in the water. The eggs are usually ten to fourteen in number for a sitting, oval or rounded-oval in form, of a pale creamy-white, the shell being close-grained and its surlace lustrous. Two eggs in the Australian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. .\. E. Brent at the Macquarie River, Tasmania, on the loth August, 1892, measure as follows; — Length (.A) 2-6S x 1-93 inches; (B) 27 x 1-96 inches ; the latter specimen is represented on Plate B. X\TI., figure 2. A set of ten eggs in Mr. Thos. P. .Austin's collection, taken at Leongatha, South Gippsland, \'ictoria, on the 19th August, 1906, measure as follows : — Length (.A) 274 x i-97 inches; (B) 2-78 x i-gi inches; (C) 2-63 X 1-99 inches; (D) 2-65 x 2 inches; (E) 2-45 x 1-83 inches; (F) 2-82 x 1-98 inches; (G) 272 X 1-93 inches; (H) 2-6 x 1-97 inches ; (I) 27 x i-gSinches; (J) 2-07 x 1-98 inches; (K) 273 X 1-87 inches. ., ... ■ . • Mr. S. F. Mann, of Western X'ictoria, forwarded a set of eight eggs to the Trustees of the Australian Museum, and wrote : — "These eggs were tak-en by Mr. W. A. Armstrong on the yth October, 1904, on his property at He.xham Park, Hexham, Western Victoria; I am 72 ANATIN'.-E. also foiwauiin;,: you two odd egs,'s. The one rnarl^ed (A) I took' myself from a nest in the top of a dead tree truiilc, at Ilopkin's Hill, near Chatsworth, N'ictoria. The opening,' of the nest was the top of the tree trunk', and the entrance had to be enlarged with a tomahawk' ; the e^tis, eleven in number, were about three feet from the entrance. Mr. R. H. I'. I food, on Merran;,' Station, Hexhani, \'ictoria, tells me he once found a nest of the Mountain Thick with twenty-two e'^^'s, which he left, and also saw a pair with nineteen younj^. I ha\e seen seventeen youni; myself with a pair. In one of my paddocks there is a very salt slow runnin) 2-84 x 1-92 inches; (C) 273 X 1-98 inches: (D) 2'58 x 1-83 inches; (E) 2 SS x 1-97 inches; (F) 2-84 x 2-02 inches; (G) 2'72 X 1-96 inches. In South-eastern Australia and Tasmania July and the three followini; m.^nths constitute the usual breed! n" season. Tadorna rufitergum. WHITE-HEADED SHELDRAKE. Tadurwi n,i'lf/i mirriiir transccrsc hlackistli lines, somr id tin lanji-r scapulars and ter/inis hroicnishddark, the inner ivehs of llie hitler rieli cliesfiiul .■ centre nf tin hack hlnck, null/, narmn' transi'erse u-liitisli lin-'s: Imcer back, rump, npprr tail-corerts and tail hiack ; upper ioiu(/-corerts white, the, greater s''ries crossed near their tips u'ith II narroir hlackish. band ; prhna.ries and priniarij-corerts black : ivinr/ spi'dihiin on the secondarii's uliissi/-i/ri'i n, bordered brioir and brhind irilh binrk ; inner iri-hs an I ti/)s of si-condnrii's irhite : liead, it'ck, breast and abdonun while, the npper breast crossed by a narrow chestnut band iiidistinrthj barred irilh blnckisli transverse lines ; lower flanks and under tail-corerts brownish-black rerinicniated with n-lntii-hrutrn : bill jlesh ij-white : leijs and fi^el white : iris /rhile. 7'otal biiylh .20 inches, nnng m:.',. tail .7, /,)// 1-7, tarsus 2-1. Adult FKMALK. Similar in plnmni/e tn the male. Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland, New South Wales. ^^TIE range of the White-headed Sheldrake e.xtends over portion of Noith-western .Australia, the Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland and the northern portion of New South Wales. The late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower obtained specimens near Derby, in North-western .Australia, Captain W. Chambers procured it at Port Essington, and the late Mr. E. Spalding at Port Darwin, and it has been found breeding near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory. In Queensland it has been obtained by various collectors in different parts of the State, of the skins in the .Australian Museum Collection i\Ir. K. Broadbent procured specimens at Cardwell, and the late Mr. J. Rainbird numerous examples at Port Denison. In 1901 - I added this species to the avi-fauna of New South Wales, as a flock of about fifteen birds * Vict. Nat.. VoT XVII., p. 18S (igoi). ■I'AI>OKNA. 73 was observed by me in November, 1897, in a small waterhole near the Gvvydir River in the Moree District. Mr. Robt. Grant had also previously procured one of these birds, he mformed me, near Narromme, and much farther to the south-west, so its range in Northern New South Wales extends over a wide expanse of country. In the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," in iSjj, Dr. K. P.Ramsay writing on the birds of North-eastern Queensland remarks of Tadorna nuijal, :-" I found this fane Wood Duck breeding in holes in the hollow limbs of trees during the months of December and January. It .s a common species all over Queensland, north of the Mary River. I have received specimens from Port Denison and Rockingham Bay, and also examined specimens from Port Moresby, where birds have a much narrower pectoral band than is found in the Australian examples I have seen." Subsequently Dr. Ramsay informed me it was on the Burnett River he found this species breeding in November and December of 1873 and January 1874. In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum"* Count Salvadori remarks of r,;,/,.nw n,,//,,/, :^" Australian specimens are larger, and have the back much more chestnut than those from the Moluccas and Papuan Islands." Subsequently Dr. P.rnst Hartert in " Novitates Zoologica'," f subspecilkally separates Australian specimens obtained at the So'uth Alligator River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, under the name of Tadorna nuij,h ;'//A7.2Sr^i^S, Linn. Anas superciliosa. BLACK DUCK. Anas snpi'rcilio.'s of the i/reater viiKj-coverts, and posteriorly luilh another black band y,.,, tail ',:5, bill 1-7, tarsus 1-5. ' Adult VFMKl.^.-Ge.neral colour above dark brown, all the feathers except those on the lower back and rump edged with fulvous-white : wings as in the male, but the metallic-green hand on the secondaries having a more coppery hue .• crown of the head and nape dark brown with narrow whitish margins to all the feathers ,■ sides of the head fulvous or fawn-white, with blackish-brown streaks; chin and throat fawn-7ohite., the lower portion : ( .VarnyiJ (jibberifroHi, S. Mull., Verli. Land en Volkenk, p. I.=i9 (1844). Mari-ca [lihberifruiis. Gray, Gen. Bds., Vol. III., p 6U (1845). Ana, pnncl.ita, Gould, Handhk. lids. Austr., Vol. IL, pp. ;3(35, 3G(J (part) (186.5). N.tU..u ;,ihh,rifrons, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVlI.,p. -254, PI. ii., tig. 2, head (18'J5). Nflthiin yih/jerifroiis, Sharpe, Hand I. Bd.s., Vol. I., p. 219 (1899). Adult ,1 ale. -Genera/ a.lunr ab,n.. .Urk bro,rn, all the finlhers, ...-cep, iha.e on the loa-n- bark andra.np, n-hu-h are .lujhtl,, ,/nrkrr, nUh pale Jahou.-bro>vn ,naryins : upp.r wing-covert, dark gre;psh.bron-n, the outer yrrater cnrerts whit,, the tips of the inner one. and of th. secondaries white more or Uss tnuj-d with bup : prunari.s dark brown : wm.j speeuhua on the outer webs of til secondaries ve! rety-black, with a metallic yreen lustre in the middle, shaded in some lights with copper,, red : laddeathers dark brorcn, with paler brown edges ; crown of the headand nape blackish-brown with narrowju/rous margins to all the fathers: sides of the head Jul rous-white, with narrow blackish- brown centres to the Jcalhers ; chin and throat whitish or fuh-ons-white : remainder of the nnd^r surface pale fulvous, with dark brown centres to the feathers, those on the upper breast approaching a blackish -brown, while those on the lower breast and abdomen are more obscure and less distinctly marked; under tail-cocerts blackish-brown with pair brown edges. Total length in the /l.sh 17 fj inches, icing S, tail 4, bill Vf',, tarsus I--',. Adult fkmalk. — Similar in plumage to the male. Wing 7S. in Distr,bution.-^onh.^vestern Australia, Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland New South W ales, \ ictoria. South Australia, Western Australia. ^LTHOUGH not restricted in its range to this continent, the Slender or Grey Teal is one -£r-\. of the best known species of the family Anatii-.e inhabiting Australia, both sexes of It closely resemble the female of N,/^/<„/ rashnirnm, another Australian species, with which it has often been confounded. Gould appears to have been unaciuainted with the Slender Teal when writmg the " Birds of Australia," but in describing the Chestnut-breasted Teal (N. castaurnm) there is evidence to prove that he strongly suspected the e.xistence of this distinct species of feal-one m Australia, the other in Tasmania. Many observers, including sportsmen, both in Australia and New Zealand, had also noted the difference in size and weight of the supposed females of the Chestnut-breasted Teal. Upon dissection, however, those'specimens who by their plumage were judged to be females, proved to be in many instances fully adult males, and It was at once recognised that the slightly smaller and duller plumaged birds belonged to a distinct species. Specimens from New Zealand the late Sir William Butler described in " The 80 AVATIM^. Ibis," in 1869, under the name of Anns i'dir/V/s. Sul'sequently Dr. O. Finsch identified it as Anas fiihliffi [tons, previously described by Muller, from specimens obtained in the Celebes. The existence of two distinct species of Teal inhabiting Australia was also proved later by Dr. P. L. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Gardens, who writes in the " Proceedings" as follows: — " In August, 1S7Q, we purchased a lot of eighteen Australian Ducks, which at the time of their purchase I had believed to be the Chestnut-breasted Itucks (Anas castanea) in female plumage, or non-nuptial dress, but which I now believe to bathe Anas gibhcrifvons or Slender Duck. There were six pairs, but they did not breed in 1880, nor in 1881, but in March a pair hatched out four young birds, which did well. There is no longer any doubt, therefore, that we have to deal with a species which, however much it may resemble the female of Anas castanea, is quite distinct, and of which the sexes, as may be proved by the examination of our breeding birds, are very nearly alike, the female being merely slighter, smaller in size, and duller in plumage." Although found in Northern Australia, the Slender Teal is more abundantly distributed throughout the eastern and south-eastern portion of the continent. In New South Wales it is without exception the most common species of the family Anatid.i;, and is met with throughout the year. It frequents the same situations as its congener, Ncttion castannnn, ri\ers, swamps and lagoons, both near the coast and inland. Thousands of these birds are shot every year, but without any apparent diminution in their numbers, judging by the enormous flocks to be seen inland, especially after a heavy rainfall. They are exceedingly tame and easy to approach before disturbed by too much shooting. There is a great amount of variation in plumage, even in adult specimens procured in the same locality. Of examples obtained by the late Mr. K. H. I!ennett, at Coombie, in the Lachlan District, New South Wales, some have the throat almost white, the underparts very much paler, approaching a very pale fulvous or fulvous-white, the dark brown or blackish-brown centres to the feathers of the breast being much smaller, and the centre of the lower breast and abdomen unspotted. In others the coppery tinge to the metallic-green band in the middle of the wing speculum is most pronounced. The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, while resident at Mossgiel, New South Wales, wrote as follows : — " Anas f^il>bcrifrons is without exception the most common species of the family Axatid/F, inhabiting this localitj', being met with at all times wherever there is water, and in unusually wet seasons appearing in thousands. It breeds from .August to November, and its nests, like those of A. SHpeiriliosn, are very common, and are placed in a variety of situations, sometimes on the plains beneath the shelter of a cotton bush, and far from water, and often in the herbage surrounding water. The most favoured site, however, is the hollow trunk of some tree in or near the water, and in all cases the eggs are enveloped in down ; the greatest number of eggs I have found in a nest was ten. This bird is very gregarious, assembling in large flocks, and the blacks on the Darling River capture large numbers in nets made for the purpose, se\entythree being caught in one haul at which I was present." Writing later, while resident at \'andembah Station, near the Lachlan River, New South Wales, Mr. Bennett remarks: — "On the 27th June, 1889, after an usually wet autumn, I found a nest of Anas iiihhcrifrons in a hollow trunk of a Box-tree, containing six eggs partially co\ered with down from the breast of the parent bird." Prom Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. .Austin sends me the following notes .• — " The Grey Teal (Ncttion gibhcfifrons) is probably the most common of all Ducks; it is usually found in large flocks, and is tolerably tame. Their call note when flying is usually a cackling squawk, but when swimming it is a single note, which is more of a squeak uttered at intervals of a few minutes. They are moderately fast fliers, but as a rule do not fly as fast as some of the other Ducks. They prefer to nest in hollow trees, but where suitable XKTTION'. 81 trees are not ;uailable they nest in any convenient place upon the f,'round. I once saw one sittin;,' upon eight eggs under a large stone upon the hanlc of a dam. This year (1909) one hatched thirteen young in a hollow about seventy feet from the ground, in a green Red Gum- tree, from which I took a set of four Dollar Bird's (Eiiiysloiniis pncifuiis) eggs last year. To look at this hole one would hardly think a Teal could get in at the entrance, and e\en if she did it appeared impossible to hatch so many eggs in such a small liollow." From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me as follows: — " Tlie Common Teal ( Meftioi! f^ihhei'ifi'oiis) may be found in all parts of Australia. It matters little whether the water is fresh or salt, the Teal is equally at home in fresh water creeks, lagoons, rivers and swamps, or on the sea coast and salt lakes. I have shot them in all manner of places. If heavy rain falls they will take possession of any little pool or claypan, swimming in the water or feeding on the grass surrounding it. They frequently associate with ducks of other species, and breed in hollow branches, often far from water. From Western Australia Mr. T(jm Carter writes me :—" Nettioii f;lhli,-n/ivns is a common Duck in North-western Australia, breeding in hollow spouts, eggs being noted between .April and August. At Broome Hill, in South-western Australia, young in down were noted on the 14th December, 1905, and on the 9th October, 1908; on the ist November, 1908, a nest with eight eggs." The nest of the Slender Teal is sometimes built under the shelter of a bush or tuft of grass far away from water; at other times in rushes or reeds near the edge of a swamp, but more often it breeds in a hollow trunk or branch of a tree in or near the water. The nest when built on the ground is a shallow depression lined with a few pieces of dried grass, or bits of rush, the eggs usually being enveloped in a mass of down, plucked from the breasts of the parent birds. When hollow trees are resorted to, if the eggs are laid far from the entrance, as is frequently the case, there is only a slight lining or covering of down. The eggs are usually eight to tweK'e in number for a sitting, oval or an ellipse m form, of a uniform cream colour, the shell being close-grained, smooth and almost lustreless. A set of eight heavily incubated eggs taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, on Yandembah Station, in the Lower Lachlan District, New South Wales, on the 22nd August, 1889, measures :— Length (A) 1-98 X 1-42 inches; (B) 1-92 x 1-47 inches; (C) i-g6 < 1-47 inches; (D) 1-95 x 1-52 inches; (F) 2 x 1-43 inches; (F) 2 x 1-45 inches; (G) i"g5 x 1-43 inches; (H) 2"02 x 1-45 inches. A set of twelve eggs in Mr. Thos. P. Austin's collection, taken by him from a iiole in a thick branch of a dead Red Gum-tree, about twenty feet from the ground, on Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, on the 26th August, 1909, is of a creamy-white and measures as follows : — Length (A) 2-03 x 1-47 inches; (B) i'96 x 1-39 inches; (C) 2 x i'4i inches; (D) 1-94 x i'3g inches; (E) i-8q x 1-37 inches; {¥) 1-96 x 1-42 inches; (G) i'93 X 1-38 inches; (H) 1-98 x 1-41 inches; (I) 1-98 x 1-38 inches; (J) i-88 x 1-43 inches; (K) i'9 X i'46 inches; (L) r94 x 1-38 inches. When the nest of this species is built out on the plains, the young are carried to the water by the female in her bill. Frequently when feeding in the sedges young birds become the prey of voracious water-rats. Out in the open water they are tolerably safe, for upon the approach of danger, usually in the shape of a Black-cheeked Falcon, or a Harrier, the female dives, and is instantly followed by her little ones. In Eastern Australia .'Vugust and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season, but in exceptionally wet seasons eggs have been found in May and June. 82 Spatula rhynchotis. SllUVELLKK. Alias rlii/uchulis, Lath., Iiul. Orn. 8uppl., p. Ixx. (ISOl). Simtiila r/ii/nc/iolis, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. Vll., pi. 12 (1.S4.N); id., HaniUik. Bds. Austr, Vol. IL, p. 3G8(1S6")); Salvad., Cat. lUls. iSiit. Mus., Vol. XXVII., p. 314 (1895); Sharpe, HantM. Bds , Vol. I., p. 221 (1S99). Adult malk. — (_'rf imh'r broirn : loirer back, rump ami np/jer tai.l-coverts dusky brijirn, llie longer coverts irhite, those at tlie sides barred witli blackish.-brotvn ; tail-Jeatliers dark broivn tipped with 7rhite ; ivings brown, the greater coverts and inner primaries tipped jvith jrhite ; forehead and crown of t/ie liead grei/is/i-bron-n ; a large oval patch on each side of the Iiead, anil a line from either eije 7initing at the occijint and e.etrndiii.g don:n the back of the neck blackish-brown : a narroiv line of feathers encircling the eye 7vliile : behind the dark patch on the side of the head a spot of rose-pink ; sides 0/ face and chill lohite ; sides of the neck and all tin- nnder surface grey ish-n-hite crossed with numerojis blackish-bron:n bars, broader, darker and very consjiicuons on. the sides of the body, and almost obsolete on the centre of the breast : centre of the abdomen and vent while, tinged with buff ; ntider tail-coverts white waslied with buff, ivhich is more prononiiced on the longer ones; bill dark greenish-grey ; iris rich bronn. Totid length IS inches, wing ?'■'>, tail ,?'8, bill i2'6, tarsiis 1'3. Adult fkmaf.K. — Similar in plumage to the male. MALACORHYNCHUS. 85 PINKEAREI) DUCK. Distnbiiliou.—SoTth-westem Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. r |®\HIS distinctly marked little Duck is generally distributed over most parts of the Australian -L continent. It is also found in Tasmania, but is there considered a yarn avis. It is a common species in the inland portions of New South Wales, evincing a decided preference for open shallow lagoons, usually being met with in pairs or small flocks, and will admit of a very near approach, and then as a rule it only flies a short distance before alighting on the water again. Although easy to procure, and almost the same size as the Slender or Grey Teal, it is not sought after by sportsmen for the table as is the latter species. The vernacular names of Pink-eared Duck and Pink-eyed Duck applied to tills bird are, strictly speaking, incorrect, for it has neither a pink ear nor a pink eye. The latter name was bestowed on it by the early colonists, and served as well as any other to distinguish the species, as it is totally unlike any other Duck in Australia. Put the oblong spot of rose-pink on each side of the head, whence it takes this name, is a quarter of an inch behind the eye, and nearly half an inch above the ear-coverts. This species seldom occurs in the neighbourhood of Sydney. A few examples were brought under my notice in Way, 1897, obtained at Botany during a period of drought inland, one of these specimens being presented to the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Mr. H. Burns. I have never seen or heard of its occurrence near the metropolis since. In X'ictoria I saw one of these birds shot in a shallow brackish lagoon between St. Kilda and Albert Park, near Melbourne, at that time a great resort of waterfowl. Writing me from Ripple Creek, lierbeit River, North-eastern (Queensland, Mr. J. A. Boyd remarks :—'^(Jn the 9th September, 1892, I shot three Pink-eared Ducks; it was the first time I had seen this species here." From Copmanhurst, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge writes :—" The Pink-eared Duck (MalacovJiyiichus mcmhranncciis ) I thinlc was always a rare bird in these parts, and is seldom met with, but I have seen odd ones at times shot by the duck shooters and exposed for sale." Mr. Robt. Grant, Taxidermist of the Australian Museum, has handed me the followino- note:—" I have found the Pink-eared Duck in many parts of Western New South Wales, at Narromine, on the Macquarie River, on the tanks and dams in the Byrock District, on Buckiinguy Station, near Nyngan, on the billabongs of the Darling River, near Bourke, and at Budda Lake near Trangie. At the latter place I found it breeding in holes in dead trees in September. One nest was placed on the top of an old nest of Trihiviyx tviifrnlis in some reeds, and it contained three fresh e'^gs beautifully enveloped in down plucked from the breast of the parent birds. Although partially surrounded with reeds, it was fully exposed to view, and looking at it from a distance it resembled very much a Spiny Echidna (Ecliidim Iiystrix). I have never met with this Duck in flocks, only in pairs." From Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. Austin writes me :— " The Pink-eared Duck (Malacorhyncluis niciiihranaceits) is much the tamest of its tribe, and as 22 86 ANATIN.E it seldom Hies \ery hi^'li a ^reat numlier are shot each year. I have known a t1ock of them to rty round and round a lagoon until they were all shot. They do not breed here, nor have I ever seen their nests, but have observed a great many young birds on the swamps near the Macquarie River, and they are experts at diving even when very young." While resident at Vandembah Station, Lachlan District, New South Wales, the late Mr. K. 11. Bennett wrote: — " On the 30th July, 1889, I found a nest of Malaioflivnchns mcmhyanaccus, containing six eggs. They were placed in a slight hollow in the top of a stump standing in water, and were completely enveloped in down plucked from the breast of the parent liird. I should not have observed it had 1 not seen the Duck fly off. On the 12th September, iSSg, an instance of the Pink-eared Duck taking possession of the disused nest of a Crow, in a tree some twelve or fourteen feet above the surface of the water, came under my observation. This species of Duck is the only one that completely envelopes its eggs in down, but often they are not when placed in the hollow trunk- of a tree. This habit of covering the eggs with down is to protect NKST Ol' PlNK-KAKKIi Ml'l.- (iN lUSUSKIl NKST OF '1 H K STRA W-NKCK KI) IP.IS. them from the Crows. No matter how exposed the nest of the I'ink-eared IHick may be, I notice that the Crows do not molest it, for they seem to have an instinctive dread of the down. This in all probability arises from the tenacious manner in which the down would cling to their heads and bills. Some little time ago, by way of experiment to see if Mdlacorhyucliiis mcmhranaccus would appropriate them, I placed two nests in Polvi^onum bushes and one in the fork of a tree two feet above the water. I found that one in a Polyqniuim bush, and the one in the fork, had been taken possession of by this little Duck. On the 17th September I noticed that some scores of deserted nests of the Straw-necked Ibis, in a Polygonttui swamp, had in se\eral instances been taken possession of by the Pink-eared Duck, one of whom, with the Plucks eggs and their envelope of down, I brought away. On the 2nd November I visited a heronry on a neighbouring station, in the hopes of getting some e^rgs of the Glossy Ibis. When there on the 22nd October I took a set of egt:s from a Coot's ( FiiUca aiistralis) nest, but found it had since been taken possession of by Malacorhyuchus mcmhranaccus, and four eggs had been deposited in the usual manner in a mass of down. Numbers of nests had been taken possession of by these little Ducks ; in fact every nest large enough that had been abandoned by its former owner, whether near the surface of the water or high up on the trees, was utilized, each containing its pink- eared usurper." MALACOKHyNfHUS. 87 Mr. G. A. Heartland sends me the following notes from Melbourne, Victoria: — "The Pink- eared Duck (Mnliuoyhymiiiis iin-iiilii-ivicu\-iis) is the smallest species of Duck found in Australia, and is a lover of fresh water. When heavy rain falls, forming small pools on the plains of Melton or Keilor, these birds arrive in pairs or flocks of four or five. In the breeding season they sometimes take possession of the abandoned nest of a Hawk or Crow, and after lining it with down, lay and hatch their eggs. I have shut them in North-western Australia, the Northern Territory of South Australia, Riverina, and Victoria." When resident in Pott Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. Chenery sent me the following note : — " Waterfowl in the north lay when it rains irrespective of season. On Arcoona Station, one hundred and forty miles north-west from Port Augusta, I found several nests of the Pink- eared Duck on the 24th April, 1901. The nests were made entirely of thick down laid on a few sticks between the stems of a shrub like the Box-thorn, standing in the water. Each nest contained six eggs." From Western Australia Mr. Tom Carter writes me: — " Maldiorliyiuliiis nuiiihyanacciis is not uncommon inland from Point Cloates, North- western Australia, being mostly met within shallow clay-pan waters." The nest of this Duck is a most peculiar one. It con- sists entirely ol a rounded or oval mass uf dark slaty- grey down plucked from the breasts of the occupants of the nest, and a\erages about twelve inches in diameter by six inches in height. This is usually placed on the disused nest of some waterfowl built on the top of a low bush grow- ing in water. For this purpose Polygomiiii swamps are chiefly resorted to, as they are favourite breeding haunts of Ibises, Gallinules and Coots, and whose nearly flat nests form a splendid foundation for those of tlie F^ink-eared Duck. In this soft and downy bed the eggs are deposited, and afterwards entirely enveloped in it, securing them from the keen-eyed vision of Ravens, Crows and other egg-thieving birds. Not only are disused nests of other species built on bushes resorted to, but also those built on trees, particularly in flooded country, and more often in those of the White-fronted Heron and Ra\en, which may be some twenty or thirty feet above the surface of the water. Sometimes the nest of the Pink-eared Duck is placed on the top of a hollow stump, standing in or near water, and not infrei]uently in a hole in a branch of a tree, some distance feet from the entrance. In the latter position the eggs are deposited on the decaymg wood, and usually have but a slight layer of down beneath them. In 1.S89 the Trustees of the Australian Museum received from the late Mr. K. H. Bennett several nests of the Pink-eared L^uclc, taken by him on Yandembah Station, Lachlan District, New South Wales. One of them is placed on the deserted nest of Cai-phibis spinicollis, built on the top of a Polygonum bush about eighteen inches above the water. The nest of C. spinicoUis is a flat structure, composed of thorny sticks and twigs interlaced through one another, and measures Nli.'Sr OF I'lNlv EAKKIJ DUCK, Ol'KNICl) ANIl KCi.s E.\l'0.si;lJ. 88 ANATIN,*:. eighteen inches in widtli by five inches in height. The nest of the Pink-eared Duck is elhptical in form, and is composed entirely of dark slaty-grey down plucked from the breast of the parent bird, and measures twelve inches in width by five inches in height. To another Pink-eared Duck's nest Mr. Bennett attached the following note: — "Taken at ^'andembah 26th August, l8Sg. Tiie nest was placed on an old disused nest of Jnbviiy.x I'cntraUi, built in the lower dead horis;ontaI stems of a Polygonum bush, about a foot above the water, and was screened from view in a great measure by the overhanging green top of the bush. The eggs were placed as now in the nest, and were completely covered by the down." Both of these nests are here reproduced. The eggs are usually six to eight in number for a sitting, oval in form, of a pale creamy or yellowish-white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. Seven eggs of a set of eight, heavily incubated, taken on the i6th August, rSSy, by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett on Yandembah Station, in tlie Lower Lachlan District, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) 1-93 X 1-39 inches; (B) 1-94 x 1-42 inches; (C) 1-94 x i-3.s inches; (L)) 1-96 x 1-39 inches; (¥.) 1-95 x i-37mches; (F) 1-93 x 1-35 inches; (G) f94 x 1-36 inches. A set of six eggs taken in the same locality, on the 26th August, 1889, measures: — Length (\) 2 x 1-43 inches; (B) 1-97 x i'47inches; (C) 2-02 x 1-43 inches; (!>) i\jS x 1-47 inches; (E) 1-96 x 1-46 inches; (F) rgh x 1-42 inches. Semi-adult birds resemble the adults, but may be distinguished by the o\al spot on the side of the head being smaller, and the line extending behind the eye on to the occiput and down the back of the neck- not so well defined, these parts also being brown, and the rose-pink spot behind the eye is smaller ; the centre of the lower back is dark brown, transversely barred with paler brown ; on the under parts there is a larger extent of white on the breast and abdomen, and the transverse blacl;ish-brown barrings are everywhere narrower and paler. W ing Cyg inches. In South-eastern Australia August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of the Pink-eared Duck, nests with fresh eggs being first found about the middle of August. The season, however, is greatly inlluenced by the rainfall. In 1889, an abnormally wet year in Southern New South Wales, following a long period of drought, Mr. K. II. Bennett took six eggs from a nest on the 30th July, and an incomplete set of four as late as the 2nd November. In South Australia Dr. A. Chenery found several nests containing fresh eggs on the 24th April, ii;oi. Stictonetta naevosa. FRECKLED DUCK. Ancs luivosa, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 177 ; i-/ , Bds, Austr, fol. Vol. VII, , pi. 10(1848). Stictiiiielta iKti-osa, Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 367 (ISti.")); ISalvad., Cat. Hd.s. Brit. Rlus., Vol. XXVII., p. 324 (1805); Sliarpf, Hand-I. Bds., Vol. L, p. -221 (lSi»;)). Adult m.-^le. — O'etieral colour abore and below dark hroivn, minutely freckled atnl spotted ivith irrei/7ilar oblon;/ bars of mhiir or buff] llie latter colotir preiluiu'niatiny on ilo' upper parts : primaries broirn, reitiaimh r of l/ie triiig aiid thr laiffentlirrs like the back : centre of the breast and abdomen dull white, irrej/njarli/ freckled or marked iiHtli. broicn : '' bill olire-black, the nail black ; legs and feel greenish-clay colour, darkest on tlie mebs, iiai's black" {lio\den). Total length 19 indies, tving 9, tail oSi), bill ..'■4.',, tarsus J\S\ Adult fkm.\le. — Similar in plumage to the nude. Distribution. — North-western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Mctoria, South Australia, \\'estern Australia, Tasmania. STIC'IONKTl A. K9 ^1^11 E soutiiein parts of the Auslraliaii continent is the stroni^liolil of the Freckled Ducl-r, J- one of the rarest species of the sub-family AxATiN'.Ti. Inuring my residence in Victoria 1 saw it frequently exposed for sale in the poulterer's shops of Melbourne, and on rare occasions I have also observed it in the ^'ame dealer's shops of Sydney. Althouf,'li it breeds in New South Wales it must be looked upon as a rare species. Of the specimens in the Australian Museum Collection procured in the latter State, is an example obtained by Mr. V. T. Houghton at Tom Ugly's Point, Botany Bay, in April 18S9. On the 20th April, 1892, two specimens were received, one from .Armidale in the north, presented by Mr. S. G. Goodwin, and one from Wagga, in the south, presented by Mr. W. C. Hunter. In June, 1897, Mr. George Savidge presented an adult male shot by him at Ulmarra, on the Clarence River, in that month while it was flying with a flock of Nyrocn niistralis. It was accompanied by the following note: — "The Freckled Duck is an extremely scarce bird in the Clarence River District. I never saw more than half a dozen examples durmg all my excursions. I have just returned from a few days shooting down the river, where ducks and waterfi.^wl of all Icinds are very numerous owing to the severe drought inland. While there I shot a F"reckled Duck, and I am now sending the skin down. My companion who was with me, and who has shot some thousands of ducks for the market, says he first observed the species in 1884-5, 'wo dry seasons, but has only seen a few of them." In the same month a mutilated specimen was sent me for identification shot some miles south of Toowoomba, Queensland: it is extremely rare in the latter State. Mr. Tom Carter wrote me: — "Only once, on the 23rd July, 1900, did I note the Freckled Duck (Stictonctta lurvosaj in North-western Australia. This was at Cardabia Pool, when three were shot out of a small flock." Dr. L. Holden, while resident at Circular Head, 'J'asmania, wrote: — " ( )n the 30th June, i8y2, a male Freckled Duck (Sfuioiictla lUTVosa) was brought to me. It was shot on a farm about seven miles from here. In June, iSg8, Mr. Richardson of Sandford shot one. He told me he got them occasionally. Mr. Alexander Morton, Curator of the Tasmanian Museuin, Hobart, had previously exhibited a specimen of the Freckled Duck at a meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania ; it was obtained at Ross on the 12th April, 1884." Count Salvadori, in describing this species in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," — the sole representative of this strictly Australian and Tasmanian genus— remarks in a foot-note : — " Systematic position very uncertain. Nail of the bill bent backwards as in Erisiuafufal Bill rather long, at the base much compressed and very high, rather broad towards the tip; the edge of the upper mandible towards the tip, with lamella-, prominent horizontally; culmen very concave, as in Tadorua lOiiiiita. No wing-speculum. Tail very short." For an opportunity of describing a properly authenticated set of Freckled Duck's eggs, I am indebted to Mr. S. Robinson, who found this species breeding near Buckiinguy Station, in the western portion of Central New South Wales. Of equal interest is Mr. Robinson's statement regarding the change in the colour of the bill of this species during the breeding season. He informed me that when his son first told him of this fact he could scarcely credit it, but that he quickly convinced him by going out the following morning and returning with a specimen. Inquiring from him the exact place in which he had shot it, he went out himself, and was not very long before he flushed a Freckled Duck from her nest containing eggs. Writing under date 17th March, 1907, Mr. Robinson remarks: — "What nests of Stictonctta navosa I have talcen were found in the Polygonum, about two feet above the water, with a small platform to walk up to the nest. Three nests were taken, two each with seven eggs, the other with five, and all heavily incubated. The Duck when breeding has the bill red like a Black Swan, and is very shy. September, October and November are the breeding months." 23 90 FULIIiULlN.E. A set of seven were taken on the 14th October, 1903, from a nest built in a Poly<^onum bush growing in the water in Goula Dam, near Marra Creek, and about forty miles from Nyngan, on what was originally portion of Buckiinguy Station. The nest was about two feet from the surface of the water, and it had a stairway to it like a Coot's nest. The eggs are thick ovals in form, one inclining to an ellipse ; the shell is close-grained, smooth and highly lustrous, more so than any other species of the Australian Akatin.i;, and are of a uniform pale creamy-brown. Six eggs of this set measure: — Length (A) 2-4 x 1-85 inches; (B) 2-43 x 1-85 inches; (C) 2-42 X 1-77 inches; (D) 2-43 x r8 inches; (E) 2-42 x 1-3 inches; [V) 2'32 x i-8i inches. Another set of seven was taken in the previous month. Sub-family FULIGULIN^. Nyroca australis. WHITK-KYED DUCK. A'ynicd ,ui!. Ram'say record it from the Norman River, in the Gulf District, Northern Queensland, and from the opposite side of the continent there is a specimen in the Australian Museum Collection obtained by Mr. George Masters at Port Lincoln, in South Australia. It is common also in many parts of New South Wales and Mctoria, and is frequently seen amongst other species e.xposed for sale m the poulterers' shops of Sydney and .Melbourne, and where in my early collecting days I have shot it in the neighbourhood of the latter city. Some adult males, probably very old birds, have the upper parts rich chocolate-brown and the lower back as well as the rump nearly black. There is, too, a variation in the extent of white on the apical portion of the central primaries ; in some specimens both webs are entirely white, while others have the outer webs narrowly edged with brown ; the wing-measurement of adult males varies from 8-65 to 9 inches. Writing under date 17th March, 1906. from Cunnamulla, South-western Queensland, Mr. S. Robinson, remarked :-" Ny.vca anstraln breeds in Polygonum bushes; it must be in a very quiet place and the bushes not too dense, so that they can see you before you get too close to them. They leave the nest very quietly. Number of eggs laid nine or ten." The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, writing from Mossgiel, South-western New South Wales in 1S86, remarked :-"A^;w« „usty,Us, though somewhat widely distributed, is by no meLns numerous, and is generally met with either in pairs or in small flocks of six or eight individuals and as a rule, at any rate in this part of the country, does not associate much with other species of Ducks, but IS generally found alone. It is an exceedingly shy and wary bird, and very d.thcultto approach, and is rarely found in shallow water, preferring deep still reachesand pools where it can exercise its great powers of diving. When compelled to take wing it rises with d.thculty, running along the surface of the water, but when once on the wing it flies with creat rapidity, and its flight is capable of being sustained for a long time. Of its nidiflcation I re-ret I know nothing." '^ Mr. George Savidge sent me the following notes from Copmanhurst, Clarence River, New South ^^^ales :-" The White-eyed Duck (Nyroca australis) is perhaps the commonest Duck inhabiting the district, and may be seen on the large swamps on the Lower Clarence: also on the clear stretches of water on the upper reaches of the river above Copmanhuist. It is a very powerful flier, and when much shot at mounts very high in the air, and flies a great distance before it settles again. I have seen very large flocks of these birds about Copmanhurst, and have watched them quite close diving and searching for their food, the water soon becomin^^ quite discoloured and muddy where they have raked up the bottom with their beaks. Althou^^h they are such a common Duck, I have never found the nest or eggs." . ^/''°'" C'^'^^'^'^^h Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr.^Thos. P. Austin writes me :- '1 he Hard-head riVjm-,7.„sW.5) appears to have many habits just the reverse to the Pink- eared Duck. They are always very wild, fly at a great height, and when disturbed usually fly straight away for miles, but will probably return to their favourite water hole again durin- the night They vary very much for table use; I have known them shot at certain lagoonslom which they are anything but a good eating bird, from other lagoons they are equal to the l,est of Ducks, and yet we could not notice any difference in other species of Ducks from the same waters." From Melbourne, N'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Heartland wrote me as follows :-^' The White-eyed Duck (Nyyoc, austmhs) is undoubtedly the most expert diver and fastest flier of our native -ame buds. It IS quite amusing to watch a novice trying to shoot one. It seems to time the "flash 92 1.,UISMAI'IU:IN,K. of the gun to a nicety, and dives to escape the dan^'er. I saw one sportsman, who had no (iilticulty in kilhnt; Biacl'; Duck or Teal, lire fourteen shots at a White-eyed Duck before he killed it. The bird simply dived e\ery time he fired at it. When flying down the wind it travels at a great latc At r-!rookman Creek, Western Australia, I shot a Black Duck which was mated to a Wliite-eyed r>ack. The range of this species embraces the whole of the continent. Their llesh is highly appreciated as an article of food." From notes made by r>r. f^onsdale Holden while resident in Tasmania, I have extracted the following :—" On the 8th April, iSSy, an adult male Nyroca (iiislmlis was shot amongst the P)lack Duck' on the big lagoon on Circular Head Peninsula; bill black, anterior third pale slate colour, under mandible blackish, legs and feet greyisli-brown in front, blackish-slate posteriorly; iris buffy-white or yellowish-white, not quite pure white. On the 19th March, 189S, I saw one of these birds tied to a Black Duck on Ilobart Wharf, and was informed it was shot at Sandford. I obtained the bird, skinned it, and sent it to the Tasmanian Museum. In June, 1898, many were exposed for sale, and I saw one flying myself the previous month at Risdon. On the 28th April, igoo, I bought a pair of Nyroca austrdlis in a shop at Holiart ; at the same time I was offered a pair of Shovellers, and also a pair of Black Duck, and was informed all had been shot at Brid.Ljewater." An egg in Mr. G. Savidge's collection, from a set of five taken on Buckiinguy Station, on the 14th (Jctober, 1894, is an ellipse in form, dull creamy-white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and glossy. Length 2-15 x 17 inches. An egg in Mr. G. A. Heartland's collection, taken in Riverina, measures 2'35 x I'f^^ inches. Sub-family ERISMATURIN^?:. Erismatura australis. BLUE-BILLED DUCK. O.fynra niislralis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, PS36, p. 8."i. KrUmalnra aua/ra/is, (lould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VIF., pi. 17 (184S) ; /«/., Haudljk. B.ls. Austr., Vol. ]]., p. 379 (1865); Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVII., yx 4.51 (1^95); Sharpe, Hand I. Bds., Vol. T., p. 227 0 899). Adult M.^LK. — (^pwral cnhiur ahni'i^ ricli cliednul : centre of loirer hack and tipper fail-cocerts lirutvnisJi-hhick, the hUler lippi'il iri/h rich chestiiiU : iviwi/s aivi tail dark hrotvn ; head and neck (flossy black, sliyhtli/ ii-ashed n'i/h clteshmf ; forewck, upper part nf rhrs/ and fhiiiks rich cliestHiU : remainder of the under surface pale or ivhilij-broivii, each featlier indistinctly barred with darker brown,; " upper mandible shUy-blue, lower mandilile ivory-while, skin along its centre pale brown ; legit and feet oehreoaa-lirowi}, t//eir inner asjiect tvhilish-stone colour, ?vebs black, nails brown" (Holden). Total lew/th in thejlesh Up-' inches, utinij I'rl'i, tail 2-S, bill 1-7, tarsus lo. Adult fem.\le. — (iewral cohnr above blackish-broivn, all the feathers crossed with narrow icavy lines of pale rtifoHs-bnJf and 'cliity-brown, these transverse barrings broadest on the scapulars : t/uills and tail-Jeathers brown : head dark brown, Jiwly freckled or barred with chestnut on the forehead and crown of tlie Ifad, chestnat-hnnvn on. the sides of the heail and irhily-brown on the -sides of the neck ; throat daV v)hite, tninnlely fnckled with, bronni : fonneck brown with pa>e ERIS.MATURA. ,y^ rufou.-butf margins .■ remain,/,,- of ,!„• n,„hr surface hro,ru, nnlh sHr.ry ,ir..,;sh-,rhite u.„r,i.,. U> all the fiathers, yunng it a multUd appearance, rarticuJarlg „n th. fnr.neck and tiank. : hnu,er nndi-r tail -coverts trhil,', wnslifd Jvil/i pale rufous-biifi'. Dislnh„lio„.-Nes, South Wales, \-ictoria, South Australia, Western Austraha, Tasntan.a. qpsllli ran,,.eof the Blue-billed Duck has been largely extended since the pubHcation of J- Gould's " Handbook to the Birds of Austraha," in 1865. At that time it l>ad only been recorded from Western Australia. In the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.'Dr.L, P. Kamsay subsequently added South Australia, Victoria, and Southern New South Wales. In 1889 I extended its range to Trangie, in Central New South Wales and to lasmania,m iSgi,^. the latter consequent upon a communication received from Dr L Holden St:ll farther north in New South Wales is it now recorded, a specimen having been obtained by Mr.K. Grant, Tax.dernnst to the Australian Museum, at Uourke, in the North-western portion of the State, and only seventy miles south of the Queensland border. There are specimens in the Australian Museum Collection procured at Trangie, Dubbo, and Inveralochy, the latter locality being one hundred and fifty two m.les south of Sydney, and the nearest place to the metropolis 1 have known it to occur. There are also specimens purchased in the Sydney and Melbourne markets. From \ ictona I have seen examples obtained at the Gippsland Lakes, and from a back-water of the Murray River, near Swan Hill, and its eggs taken in South-western Australia. Mr. Robert Grant has handed me the following note :^" I have shot the Blue-billed Duck (Lns,,n,t,,n, a„st,al,s) in several localities in the Central and \\-estern Districts of New South W ales During a drought, when the Macquarie River was little more than a chain of water- holes, I procured specimens there, also at Budda Lake, near Trangie, and in a biliabong of the Darling Kiver, near Bourke, five hundred and eight miles north-west of Sydney." The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, of Yandembah Station, near Booligal, South-western New South \yales records:-- Hitherto Western Australia has always, if I do not mistake, been regarded as the exclusive habitat of this bird; but that it does occasionally, though it would seem very rarely, wander far beyond the boundaries of that colony is evidenced by" my having met with It on several occasions during the winter and spring of last year. This period was an extremely wet one over the whole of Australia, and particularly in this usually dry portion of New South Wales, and, as a result, this and several other species of aquatic birds that I had not previously observed during a residence of thirty years in this locality, appeared here. On one occasion I had the good fortune to discover a nest which contained two eggs just upon the point of hatching, and on which the female was sitting, whilst only a few yards distant the male evidently proud ot his charge, was swimming about in company with six or seven newly hatched young ones.. I came quite close to the birds before they observed me, the female droppin-' from the nest like a lump of lead, and disappeared beneath the water the instant she did so "whilst the male and young ones dived at once, and none of them reappeared until they had pu't some sixty yards between themselves and me. The nest was a neatly made structure composed of rushes, but without any lining, and was placed in a low dense Pohx^omn, bush, some six or eight inches above the water. The eggs were very large for the size of the bird, white in colour and of a very coarse texture. As a proof that this was not an exceptional instance of this rare' bird breeding here, I may mention that on a subsequent occasion, on another sheet of water some twenty-hve miles distant, I saw another brood of young ones in company with their parents." From Melbourne, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me as follows :-" In Victoria the Swan Hill District is one of the most favoured resorts of the Blue-billed Duck (Enswaf,n-a australh) These birds also frequentLak^ann andajiLimbei^oMagoons and swamps in the vicinity of the ' Nest and Eggs Austr. Bds,, App., p. 407 (18S9). f RecT Austr7 Uus^^dClU^Ji^. ' I Ibis, 1891, p. 143. ;).( KlilSMA'l IHIN.E. Murray Ki\fr. Altlion,t,'h they have \ery short wins;s they lly \ery fast when forced to take flight, but, if possible, they ,<,'enerally try and avoid dan;;er by diving,'. 'Iheir chief food is alga^ and other forms of aquatic vei:;etation, whicli they obtain whilst divint^. Their flesh is more like that of the Tippet Grebe than a Duck, and the skin of the breast is lined with a inass of oily blubber, which is a source of considerable trouble to the taxidermist. A ^,'reat many of them set drowned through becoming entangled in nets set for tish. All the specimens 1 ha\e had were obtained in that manner. \'ery few people care to eat them, although the Hesh is not badly flavoured. Their eggs are large in proportion to the size of the bird." r)r. Lonsdale Ilolden thus records in his notes, while resident at Circular Head, on the north- western coast of Tasmania : — "On the 15th April, 1892, a male Blue-billed Duck ( Eiismattiva nuitialis) was sent me by Mr. J. F^oke. This bird was shot by him in the lagoon at the back of his house on Circulai Head Peninsula. It was swimming low in the water, in company with a Teal. I could not satisfactorily determine the colour of the iris ; internally it appeared to be very dark, with an external pale rim. In the crop was green granular vegetable matter, mixed with small pieces of grit." Eggs in Mr. G. A. Keartland's collection, tal;en by Mr. K. Herd on the ifith November, 1902, from a nest in a Polygoninn bush in a swamp near Benjeroop, Northern \'ictoria, vary from oval to an ellipse in form, the shell rough to the touch, caused by very fine granulations, which are visible when examined with a lens, slightly lustrous, and of a dull greenish-white, nest stained, and most resembling in colour the eggs of the Black Swan, and less so those of the Musk Duck, which are of a slightly deeper hue. Two of a set of three fresh eggs measure : — Length (A) 2-62 x r88 inches; (B) 2-66 x rSS inches. Another one of a set of three heavily incubated eggs measures 2-65 x 1-87 inches. Young birds of both sexes are alike. The distinguishing characters of the young male are first exhibited in the uniform coloured black'ish-brown feathers on the forehead, crown and sides of the head, and the intermingled dull chestnut feathers on the foreneck', back and scapulars. In Western .\ustialia Gould states it breeds in September and October. In Victoria both fresh and incubated eggs have been found in November. In New South Wales Mr. K. H. Bennett found chipped eggs and young birds on the 2nd November, and I saw young birds that were shot at Trangie in March. Biziura lobata. MUSK DUCK. Allan lobn/ii, .Shaw, Nat. Mi.scL, pi. 255 (1706). Jiiziura lobata, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. 18 (If^-tJS); vL, llandbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 381(1805); Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mu.s., Vol. XXVII., p. 452 (1895); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., VoL I., p. 227 (1899). Anrr.r m.^lr. — dnwraf colour above bhickish-browu, i^ronsftl unlh iiuineroi'S Iransru-rfie bars of bnjfyfv/ii/'', or ir/iili/ broicu ; quills and tail.-featJiers hroirnislt-hlark : fomhead, croirit of the head, ■tmjie and centre of the hiad-neck bronuiish-b/ack ; sides of the head and neck blackish-brown, each feather broadly lipped and barred with trhitij-brown ; chest and sides of the body like the back ; centre of the breiist ^cliity-broicn, the concealed portions of the fentliers grcyish-broivn., transversely barred ivitli ivhity-broH'n ; on the lower portion of the abdomen the i/reyish-brown bases of the feathers are exposed, and their idIiU y-brown tips are /cashed with buff ; under tail-coverts blackish-brown crossed and lipped IIIZIURA 95 ivilh ivldty-hmivn : l>iU aii'/ Ifulli'T-lik'' lob'' ihp'iiidiiij frum (he cenlrf of I In- iiinler iiuiiidihl/' hhn-k, lip of llie hitler //ink, edges of iJie apical porliou yel/oicish-irhile ; /fe/s and frrl dark slate colour ,■ sew dark liroivn. Total lewjth in the //'>/( .29 indies, tving .9'J.7, tail -ro, bill 1'7~>, depth of lobe auder lon'er mandible ■!' .'5, lar.tn.1 1'7-'). Adult KKMALK. — Snnilar in plamai/e In thr imtl' but smallir, tin' lobe nho heloai the nn.iler mandible tniicJi stnalbr, nieasnriny unit/ li'.'i in ihplJi. W iii>. ;l--:-J) .- .;.,.i ■:iK Aui Ji i-..jjcl ': .".iM -iiii.'l.iij4 •;7:iJ EXPLANATION OF PLATE U. XVII. Pig. 1. Hali^tus leucouastek. White-lx'lliod Sea-Eaglo. Fij^. 2. Casarca tadornoiues. Sheldrake. Fig. 3. Platibib flavipes. Yf Uow-legtjed Spoonbill. Fig. 4. Xenoruynchus asiaticus. Black-necked Stork. Fig. 5. Caki'hibis .sriNicoLLis. Straw-necked Iliits. Fig. 6. Ibis Molucca. White Ibis. Fig. 7. Platalea kegia. Koyal Spoonbill. Fig. 8. FUFKINUS CHLOBOKHTNCHUS. Wfdge-tiiiled Petrel. Fig. y. EuorPTULA minok Little Penguin. NKSTS AND K(i(;s OK AUSTRALIAN lilRDS. I'LATK ];. XVII. if-ta» ) / r-^r y EXPLANATION OF PLATE B. SVlll Fig. !■ NOTUPHOYX PAC.IFICA. Pacific Heron. Fi;^. 2. Nycticubax caledonicds. Nankeen Niglit Heruu. Fig. 3. PlEGADIB fALCINKLLDS. Glossy Ibis. Fi". i. Herodiak timoriensis. Large Egret. Fit;. 5. Anas superciliosa. Black Duck. Pi'.;. 6 Spatula bhynchotis. Shoveller. Fig. 7. Demibgbetta sacea. Eeef Heron. Fig. 8. Butoroides stagnatilis. Little Maugruve Bittern. Fig. 9. Nettion castaneum. Chestnut-breasted Teal. Fi"'. 10. Nettion gieberifkons. Slender or (irey Teal. Fig. 11. Dendkocyuna arcuata. Whistling Tree-Duck. Fig. 12 Malacokhynchus membranaceus. Pink-eared Duck. Figs. 13, 14. .a^LUROiDUS VIRIDIS. Cat-bird. Figs. 15, 16. jElubcedus macclosus. Spotted Oat-bird. NESTS AXn EO(i.S OF AT^STRALIAN lilKDS. PLATE B. XVIII. '■^^'^^^^ -;^;x w 10 12 13 14. 15 16 Part II. of Volume IV. is issued herewith. It contains the Australian representatives of the Orders Columb.b, Gallin>e, Hemipodii, and the Sub-order Pedionomi. As in the previous Parts the illustrations of Birds are reproduced from drawings made by the late Mr. Neville Cayley. The figures of Eggs, which are of the natural size, were reproduced by the heliotype process at the Government Printing Office, from photographs of the specimens taken under the direction of the Government Printer and the supervision of Mr. A. Dyer, Miss A. E. Potter being responsible for hand colouring the Plate of Eggs in the coloured copies. Part III. is in the press. ' R. ETHERIDGE, Australian Museum, Sydney. Curator. 5t]i Jnne, 1913. PTILOFUS. 97 Order COLUMB.^. Family TRERONID^. Sub-family PTILOPODIN^. Ptilopus swainsoni. SWAINSON'S FKUIT-PIGEOX. I'/i/ii/(j/iits sirainsonii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soe , 1S42, p. IS ; if/., lids. Austr., fol. V^ol. Vll., pi. 55 (1S4S); Id., Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. In6(l.s65). I'/i/opiif: .^inainsoiii, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXI., p, 95 (IS93j; Sharpe, Haiid-1. Bds., Vol. 1., p. 57 (1899). Adult .m.^lk. — Grmra/ cu/our abore green, sltylitlj icaslied iviUi iieUuiv, the scapulars liavhuj u ileep blue spot tuirards t/ir tips: hind-neck greyish-greeit; ivings green, the secondaries externally edged ■iiHth )je.lhj)r ; tnil-Jeathers ijree'n, broadli/ margined ivith yellow at the lip, the central pair having the tips K-ashi'd with green ; forehead ami crvn-ii of the head rose-pink, narroirly margined, except in front, tritlt yellotc, the feathers on the occiput and nape haring a bluish-grey shade, which becomes more prouonnc d on the sides of the liead : chin and centre of tlie throat yelloudsh : fori-neck and breast pale (/rem nnth silvery-grey tips, ivhich are smaller on the lower portion of the breast; abdomen orange, S'-parated from the latter in, the centre by a transverse lilac band or spot : centre of the loiver portion iif the nhdomen and venAyllow : under (ail-coverts orange. Total length ',_t-5 incites, wing •7-;.', tail -ij, hill n-^;^ farsns OS.'i. Adult FKMALK. — Similar in plnmnge to the nialf. Distribntuin. — Queensland, New South Wales, Islands of Torres Strait. tr?^ \\'.\INSON'S B'ruit-Pi.qeon is a migratory species, appearing in the coastal scrubs and V — 7 lirushes and contiguous mountain ranges of Eastern Australia in September or October, remaining to breed, and leaving after the season is over at the end of February or March. Its normal range in Australia e.\tends in favourable situations from Cape York in North-eastern (Queensland to the Bellinger River in New South Wales; it also occurs on some of the larger islands of Torres Strait, and as a straggler to the soutli-eastern portion of New Guinea. During the voyage of H.M.S. " Alert," specimens were obtained by Dr. Coppinger at Booby Island, Torres Strait, also Prince of Wales Island and Thursday Island. In Oueensland it has been procured by many collectors at Cape York, Mr. F. Hislop has observed it in limited numbers in the liloomfield River District, Messrs. E. f. Cairn and Robert Grant obtained specimens near Cairns, and Dr. E. P. Ramsay at Cardwell, where in all these localities it is regarded as a comparatively rare species. Further south, at Port Denison, it is more freely distributed, the late Mr. J. Rainbird procuring many adults and young. The late Mr. George Barnard obtained it near Rockhampton, and the late Mr. George Masters, collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, obtained numerous e.xamples at Pine Mountain, Wide Bay and Moreton Bay. It is still more common in the coastal brushes of the Tweed, Brunswick- and Richmond Rivers, in North-eastern New South Wales, the stronghold of this species, and from those districts is a fine series of skins in the Australian Museum Collection ; it occurs also throughout the Clarence, Bellinger, and Macleay, becoming rarer as the Hunter River is approached. 25 98 TRKKONIlJ.*;. J'liere is hut little \atiation in a miinber of specimens now before me from diflereiit parts of Nortli-eastern Australia. Chiefly it is in tlie extent of the Hlac marl^•int; on the l)reast ; in some it is narrow and band-lilenison, (Queensland, that had not long left the nest, on the 2ist March, and during the same month the late Mr. George Masters also obtained young birds at I'ine Mountain. Ptilopus ewingi. E W I N G ' S F K U IT - P I O EON. J'li/iuii/nis I irinijii, (.iou\<\, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1S42, p. l',»; iiL, Bd.s. Au.str., fol. Vol. V , pi. ."16 (1S48); id, Haudbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., p. 107 (18C).5). riih'/iii.-i fiiiHii./i, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. iMiis., Vol. XXI., p. 96 (1893); 8harpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. .")7 (l.S9!i). AnuLT ,M.\LK. — Lik'' t/ie (idu/t iiuilf of Ftilopus swai.n'SONI, bill differing in bf.iny smallrr and having /he forelfail and croivu of (lie head rose-pink, and tltf scapulars and ititiertuost secondaries di'fji blue lo/rards ihe /ij)s ; on Ihe under parts (lie chi/i and centre of t,he throat is i/el/o/u, the feathers on the fore-neck dud yeUounsh-greeti, indistinctli/ tipped frith yeUowisli-greij ; the remainder oj the ■under surface orange-ye.llou\ richer in colour on the abdomen and liaring an irregularly sha/ied patch :if pide rose-pink separating it from the breast in the centre ,• thig/is green, under tail-coverts oranqe-i/eJtou!, richest in colour near the ends of the longer ones. Total length 7':'i inches, unng JpfS, tail :.'■?, bill O'.'i, tarsus (t-{j. .\liULT FKM.\LR. — Similar in pln>nnge to tlie nude. Diitiibiitioii. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Northern (,)ueensland. TfJV WING'S Fruit-Pigeon is a smaller northern form of the preceding species, differing I X from it chiefly in having the forehead and crown of the head rose-pinic, the chin and centre of the throat yellow, and the greater e.\tent of orange-yellow on the remainder of the under parts, which is paler next to the dull yellowish-grey tipped feathers on the foreneck. It is an inhabitant of the north-western and northern portions of the continent. Count Salvadori enumerates specimens in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"' from Quail Island, North-westerii .-Vustralia, and from Port Essington in the Northern Territory of South Australia. From the latter part of the continent Mr. George Masters has recorded specimens from Port Darwin. I have also examined a rough skin of a sitting bird, forwarded with the egg to Mr. Charles French, Jnr., Acting Go\'ernment Entomologist of X'ictoria, and obtained near the Daly I^iver, on the 20th February, 1902. In Queensland Mr. H. G. Barnard found it breeding at Somerset, in the extreme north of the Cape York Peninsula. It is the smallest of the three purple-crowned Fruit-Pigeons inhabiting Australia, the wing- measurement of the adult male being 4-6 inches. Gould's figure in his folio edition of the " Birds of .Australia" has the central marking on the breast far too grey, instead of a uniform dull rose-pink', and he there remarks : — " In naming this second .\ustralian species ol this beautiful form after the Rev. Thomas J. Ewing, D.D., I am actuated by a desire to pay a just compliment to one who has devoted considerable attention to the literature of ornithology ; I feel assured, therefore, that however objectionable the naming of species after persons may be under ordinary circumstances, it will not in this instance be deemed an inappropriate mode of evincing my sense of the many admirable qualities of a highly esteemed friend." ' Cai. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXI., p 97 (1S93). 100 THK.RdNin*. I'rom ISinibi, l>uarinKa, <_)ueenslaiid, Mi. II. G. iJarnard lias sent me tlie following; note; — " I >ui'inf,' a collectiiiK trip on Cape York, in the sprint,' of i.Sijh and early months of 1897, I fonnd Plilopus ewiiif^i fairly plentifully distributed. Their principal breedinf; place was the dense mangrove swamps, the nests being placed at the end of a projecting bough, and often very dinicalt to get at. The nests were generally observed by seeing the birds dash off and flutter away; many contained young, but only a single egg or youn;,' bird was found in each. The nests were placed at any height up to forty feet above the miul." ()nly one egt; is laid for a sitting. 'I'ypically tliey are a lenf;thened ellipse or o\al in form, white, very faintly tinged with cream, the shell being close-grained, smooth and almost lustreless. An egg taken by Mr. Robert Hislop on the 3rd December, 1894, on the Hloomfield River, North-eastern Queensland, measures: — Length i'2 x 0-83 inches. Another one taken by him on the mtli January, 1895, measures: — -Length 1-22 x 0^83 inches. An egg taken from a nest near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, on the 20th February, 1902, measures ; —Length 1-13 x 0-87 inches. Two eggs in Mr. S. Robinson's collection, taken by Mr. W. Munt from different nests on the 20th January, 1900, at Marton, near Cooktown, are of a uniform pale cream colour, the shell being nnjre lustrous than is usually seen in the eggs of the CoLUM3.«. They measure respectively ; — Length (A) i-o8 x o'8 inches; (J-i) 1-13 x o-8i inches. In the Northern Territory of Soutli Australia Ewing's Fnut I'igeon usually breeds in February and March, and in North-eastern Queensland from October until the middle of I'ebruary. Ptilopus superbus. supp:kb fkuit-pigeon. (Jolumhii. siipcrbn, Teiimi. and Knip., Pig., p. "-'i, pi. -S-'') (1808-11). J'/ilonojtiis siipfirliiis, Gould, JJds. Austr., fol. Vol. V ., pi. ."iT (1848). Jjaiiiprd/ivrtiii nu/iei-hns, Gould, Haiulbk. lids. Austr., Vol. 11., p. 108 (1865) I'tiJtipns siiperhxs, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol, XXL, p. 112 (1893). Lnm/irolri'i-oii- >i on their outer webs, blackish -brown on the inner U'ehs, except at the base, tvhich is grey and largely tipped toith greyish-ichite, margined irith green on their outer u-ebs : entire top of tlo- head purplish-violet : occiput and sides of the head green sliyhtly nyished. with olive ; sides of the neck and hind-neck reddish-ochre, ms : chin and lower sides of head grey ish-ujhite, paler ou the chin, the feathers below the eye slightly /vaslfd with green; centre of lower throat, foreneck and upper breast grey, the basal portion of the feathers on the foreneck purple ,- below the grey upper breast a well anil sharply drjitwd broad banil of indigo blue : remainder of the ■under surface and under tail coverts white crossed with two v-ell defined green bands, broken in the centre, the inner webs of some of the tinder tail-coverts streaked with green: "bill olive-green with the tip yellowish ; fei-t rose colour: iris yllon- " {D' Alliertia). Total length !>'> inches, wing 5 ^Jfi, tail S-:>, bill 0 0, tarsus 0-7. PTILOFUS. 101 Adult i-EMALK. — /ii,i/ Ihf. I,,/, ,iii,l sij/p.s of ikf. hmd c/nv.u : on flu- occiput, a ,l,vp blue ajiot .' iriiii^s i/m-u ,iwl siiiiilarlij edyr