BY A. J. NORTH. 987 



Xenorhynchus australis, Latham. 



The Jabiru of the Australian Continent, at one time thought to 

 be specifically distinct from that of India but now recognised to 

 be one and the same species, is widely dispersed over the northern 

 poi'tions of Australia. It is found frequenting the estuaries of 

 rivers as well as the inland marshes and lagoons, from the Clarence 

 River on the east coast to Cambridge Gulf on the north-west, 

 specimens having been procured at the latter place by the late 

 Mr. T. H. Boyer-Bower, and it will undoubtedly be found much, 

 farther south when our knowledge of the range of the Western 

 Australian avi-fauna is fully worked out. The great stronghold, 

 however, of this species is the Indian Empire over the principal 

 portion of which it has been found breeding, and accounts of which 

 have been given by various writers. Allan Hume in his valuable 

 work on the " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " deals exhaustively 

 with the subject; but it is only within the last few years that it 

 has been found breeding on the Australian Continent. 



The nest is a huge flat structure composed of sticks, lined with 

 twigs and grasses, and is usually placed in the high boughs of a 

 lofty tree in the near vicinity of water. Mr. Geo. Barnard found 

 a nest near Rockhampton, Queensland, but the Jabirus did not 

 remain long in indisputed possession of it, owing to the repeated 

 attacks of a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles, (Aquila audaxj which 

 ultimately caused them to desert it, 



I am indebted to Mr. John Leadbeater of the National Museum, 

 Melbourne, for the opportunity of describing these rare Australian 

 eggs, which, he informs me, wei'e taken about four months ago in 

 the Clarence River district, New South Wales. They are oval in 

 form, being nearly equal in size at both ends, of a dull yellowish- 

 white or whity-brown colour, the surface of the shell being smooth 

 but minutely pitted all over similar to those of the yellow- 



